Escaping The End
by MaximumX
Summary: POST ANGEL. The Flock, still coping with the loss of Angel, continues the fight against the Doomsday Group. Before they suceed, an unexpected force joins the fight. T for language.
1. Prolouge

Hey guys! Long time no write. Decided to finally get motivated and write something I would actually publish. Oh, and I don't own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does.

Angel woke up to complete pain. Every inch of her body hurt. She felt needles being stuck into her, heard the steady rhythm of the heart monitor, accompanied with the chemical smell of a lab. Her eyes were swollen shut and her head was ringing. She thought back, trying to figure out where she was, but she could not remember anything from before she woke up.

Finally, her eyes cracked open. Painfully, she blinked. She looked around at her surroundings. Everything was dark, but light enough to see. Yet when she looked, _her body was not there._

_Am I blind? _Angel asked herself. But no. She could see. She saw the low white roof, the linoleum floors, the rough, dull walls. Finally, she looked directly underneath herself.

And there, strapped to a gurney, was a body. _Her _body. It was shrinking, evaporating with the rest of the room. Angel realized she was rising.

She was dead.

She tried to cry, but she was too shocked. Seconds later, she went crashing back down to Earth, quicker than when she was falling, wings folded. Then she opened her eyes. Her real eyes. She looked at her arms, the arms connected to her body, her wonderful body, covered in sweat. Her initial thought was that she had been dreaming, but then her memories came flooding back on her. Paris. The Doomsday Group. The bomb. That burning sensation, the lab, the scary voice she did not recognize. Then she remembered the tests. What the DG was trying to accomplish: life outside of a body. Angel, the 'ultimate' life force, would be used for the tests. And when they succeeded, she would become their tool. She would carry out their plans. She would get the Flock to join them.

Or she would have to kill them.

So, how did you guys like it? R&R! I will have shout outs for any reviewers next chapter.

Now, onto update frequency. I plan to update once a week, on every weekend. Seeing as today is a Thursday, I might update over the weekend, but don't count on it. Chapters will be about this long. With that, later!

-MaximumX


	2. Chapter 1

Ugh. It's Friday, and I'm procrastinating with my homework. So, why not update? Thanks to everyone that subscribed and reviewed.

Shout outs: CharlieHorse97 and Arrowkid21.

Remember how miserable I was when Fang left? Now multiply that by two, and give it to the entire Flock. Fang was still gone, and now Angel was too. Gone to the place of no return. Last time we lost her, we rescued her from the whitecoats. Now, we could do nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Of all of us, Gazzy may have been the most effected by Angel's loss. We were all a family, but they were related by blood. Plus, Gazzy blamed himself for not managing to stop the explosion. It wasn't his fault. No one could have disarmed as many bombs as he did, other than maybe a huge bomb squad. He was often standing off to the side, looking dejected and staring at the ground. So many times, I've wanted to go over to him and tell him that it was all right, that everything would be fine, but I couldn't even tell it to myself.

Iggy was hurt by the loss, but it could have been worse for him. He was never as close to Angel as I was, but as I said, we're family. He grieved for her, but not as deeply. He did feel really bad for Gazzy, though. They were best pyrotechnic friends. Most of Iggy's grief was personal-he was still missing Ella.

For the first time ever, Nudge was almost completely mute. I'd consider it a blessing if I didn't know why. Before the Erasers had taken Angel last year, they roomed together. They had been close. Real close.

Dylan grieved, even though he barely knew her. I think he often thanked her in his mind for getting me to trust him. Dylan grieved as much as any of us, partly because he really was upset by her loss, part for me.

I, on the other hand, was a complete emotional wreck. My baby, my _Angel_, was dead. Gone forever. Plus, my previous love triangle was going crazy. As in, crazier than before. I was beginning to like Dylan, despite my previous attempts not to. Fang was possibly (probably) trying to replace me with Maya, my own _clone_. Not that I cared.

I was trying to be the leader my Flock needed me to be, but all I'd managed to do was to get us some plane tickets out of France. We'd flown out of Paris on our own to some small town or something, but I wasn't sure where. The plane would leave tomorrow. I wasn't sure where exactly we would be going to, but I didn't care. I was too upset. Occasionally, I'd be so pissed I'd forgotten about my grief. Now was one of those times.

The DG took my baby. I would take their lives.

So, what do you think? I'll be honest, I have no idea where I'm going with this. Suggestions are welcome.

Oh, before I go, I want to warn you. From now on, I'll probably only be able to update once a week on unnamed days. Don't expect more than that.

R&R!

-MaximumX


	3. Chapter 2

**So sorry I didn't update over the weekend guys. I'd give you excuses, but I doubt you'd care. Thanks to everyone that alerted and reviewed.**

**Shout-outs to: ChralieHorse97 and Arrowkid21!**

I felt my mind wandering in and out of semi consciousness as we made our way to the airport. I still had no idea _where_ the hell we were going, but at the moment, I really didn't care. I don't really know what happened-I think Dylan took charge, but how could I be expected to know?

When my eyes finally started working again, we were in the plane already. Huh. That was quick. We were in slightly uncomfortable gray leather seats in the economy section. Somehow I was already buckled in. I tensed until I saw Dylan sitting next to me, giving me a reassuring smile. I relaxed and looked out the window to what was left of Paris as we took off. I knew I would never again have good memories of any part of France. Despite my will, a tear began to roll down my cheek. I felt Dylan squeeze my shoulder, and quickly wiped it away. Now was no time for emotions. My Flock needed me to be strong. I turned around to see how everyone else was doing. Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy were sitting in the row behind us. Nudge had a laptop out, and was showing something to Gazzy. The conflicted emotions showing on his face told me it was about Angel. Something you long for no matter how painful it is.

I turned to the TV screen on the wall in front of me. I ordered a movie, just to try to occupy myself. I think it was _The Exorcist, _but I couldn't stay focused on it, or anything else for that matter. About an hour through, a laughing Eraser face popped onto the screen, and was met seconds later with a new image. It was the bomb going off at Paris. Then the same event at other cities. Tokyo. New York. San Diego. London. Beijing. Berlin. Rome. Then public places. Stop and Shops. Best Buys. Targets. Then small neighborhoods and rural towns. I tried turning the TV off. Nothing. I ripped wires. Still nothing. I punched the screen, shoving the seat forward. Thank god no one was sitting there. Yet the image continued playing on the shattered glass.

"Max!" I turned to see Dylan staring at me concerned. My face was pale with sweat dripping down it, and I could feel my body shaking. "What was that?" He asked more quietly.

"N-nothing. I'm fine," I stuttered, my voice shaking. Dylan looked at me with disbelief, but to my relief, he did not question me further. Instead, he handed me a new Mac Book. I didn't even ask where he got it. Systematically, I opened up to Fang's blog. The most recent blog post was from yesterday. It was some memorial to Angel. I looked at the comment box. Already over 8,000. All in one day. Once again, Fang had built an army. An army vowing to destroy the DG.

Angel woke up to numbness. A feeling she was quite used to now. Her vision faint, she rolled her head to the side. New to her was another gurney. She waited for her vision to clear, and saw who was lying on it. It was Fang, with the rattlesnake necklace, dressed exactly the way he had been on Total's birthday. _What? That's odd. He wasn't wearing that in Paris. _Her mind drifted drearily. _I'm so tired…_ Angel closed her eyes. Everything would be come clear to her soon.

They were standing on an old, out of commission oil rig, way beyond that being a working operation. Instead, all 25 of the men had transformed it into a missile-launching rig, armed and ready to hone onto the oncoming aircraft the Flock was in. In just minutes, they'd all be dead. Operation Falling Angels would never be necessary. The group finished preparing the missile for launch.

There were just two things: none of them were men, and none of them were fully human.

**My longest chapter ever! (Throws a party). So with that, I'll do my best to update this weekend, but no promises.**

**I shouldn't have to tell you, but I will anyways. Review!**

**I do not own Maximum Ride.**


	4. Chapter 3

Hey guys, so I've been getting a lot of reviews (2) about Fax over Mylan. Don't worry, I'm a firm believer in Fax. However, based on the events of Angel, Max would initially be falling for Dylan. Don't worry, there will be Fax later on.

**Shout outs: CharlieHorse97, , and AnikaandAj! You guys rock!**

** "**Max?" I looked over to Dylan, deep in concentration with a furrowed brow. "I think…we're in trouble."

"How much?" I asked, my voice chocked. If I lost another Flock member…

"There's a missile being aimed at us. We'll be directly over it in just a few minutes."

I began to worry. "Are you sure?" God, we were over the middle of the freaking _ocean_! How on Earth were we supposed to get to land?

Dylan nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure."

Crap. There was no way out of the plane. There were windows, but our heads wouldn't even fit out of them.

Wait. I knew the way out. I'd seen it on TV before. These guys went into the bathroom and pulled some rope, which dropped them out from the floor. Maybe…

I walked down the aisle to the bathroom, and found nothing of the sort. However, there _was _a weak spot under the sink. I kicked a hole in it, big enough for us to drop in through. We'd be dropping right in front of the engines. Very dangerous, but better than being blown to smithereens.

I left the bathroom and told the Flock the plan. We slowly edged our way to the bathroom and left one at a time. Dylan and I were the last ones left. He gave me a sad smile as he left.

I climbed down through the hole I made and heard a scream. Nudge. When my eyes finally found her, I was relieved to find her fine, though she was much closer to the engine than everyone else. I can only guess the wind caught her and almost brought her to the engine. The heat was radiating off of it, and pressing against it would make cooked bird-kid.

I was still hanging onto the hole in the floor. "When we drop off, go straight down 150 feet then off to the right, got it?" I yelled over the deafening roar of the engines. I doubted they would hear me, but five understanding nods soon followed. All right then. "Now!"

With that, we dropped 100 feet before unfurling our wings then dropped 50 more. Then we were flying. Oh God, we were flying! Man, was it relaxing. I could almost forget everything that had happened. Almost.

We were suddenly propelled forward by a huge explosion from behind us. A huge fireball now replaced the plane we were in seconds ago. It was no coincidence. They were tracking us. The DG knew exactly where we were.

I turned to Dylan. "Where did they launch it from?"

He looked down, doing a slow 360 . He pointed. "There. An oil rig 3 points Northwest. They're armed, but they're celebrating." He looked at me. "They think we're dead."

"Well then, let's go disappoint them," I said smiling for the first time in ages. "Iggy, Gazzy, you still have those bombs?"

They smiled and pulled out handfuls of small explosives. God, those airline companies had to step up on their security. We walked onto a plane armed with _bombs _for crying out loud. They were making this way too easy for the DG.

We swooped in for attack. We immediately knocked four in the water-a fifth was dangling from the edge. Fully aware, they pulled out their Uzi's and opened fire on us, nothing hitting. I dove feet first into one's chest and grabbed the gun as it flew into the air. I used the DG's own weapons against them. I fired upon them until the gun was empty and grabbed a new one, clubbing the kid in the back of the head for it. I become the main target of misses, and the rest of the Flock moved quickly. Before long, the deck was clear.

"Should we blow it up?" Gazzy asked, a little too excited.

_Not yet. You should see the lower deck first._

_ Voice? _I thought back. _What are you doing? Missed me? _I asked with obvious sarcasm.

_The door is under a chair in the front. _

I sighed. "Not yet Gazzy." I walked past the launching mechanism. How did no one notice this or the missile? And how the hell did this thing not explode? There were scorch marks and oil spots _everywhere_. When we got to the front, I saw the chair the Voice was talking about. A gray metal folding chair. Budget cuts?

Underneath it was a pretty well concealed trap door. We popped it open and jumped in. It was about a 10-foot drop. There was no light switch, but our eyes gradually adjusted to the light. When my eyes finally did, I was shocked.

So, how'd you guys like it? Longest chapter yet!

**I don't own Maximum Ride, and I never will. I'm not posting another disclaimer. They're annoying.**

**Review! Flames are welcome, just don't be a hater.**


	5. Chapter 4

**Oh my God, guys, I'm so sorry! It's been like two months! I've just had so much schoolwork, projects, and finals. However, my schoolwork's done now and I'll be out of school Wednesday. So you can expect more updates.**

**I'm going to apologize again ahead of time. I had the next eight chapters written up on my iPod, which conveniently just broke a few weeks ago. So, if my writing is horrible or has horrible grammar/spelling, that's why.**

**Shout outs to: AnikaandAj and flash5335.**

It was Doctor Hans Gunther-Hagan. All tied up in a wooden chair with a gag in his mouth. He was completely pale and still. There was blood on him and the floor.

_Is he dead? _The doctor's leg twitched. Dylan was visibly relieved. He would never admit it, but he felt a bond with the doctor. The strange experiment-experimenter bond. The one none of us felt.

Dylan rushed to him and removed his gag. We kneeled in front of him. When we tried to talk, he shushed us. He started stammering. God, he was _way _too pale. "Angel-Angel is…is…is-" his voice trailed off and his eyes lolled back in his head. I checked for a pulse…and nothing. I shook my head. The doctor was dead.

Angel couldn't sleep. More accurately, she couldn't pass out. Something was very, _very _wrong. Next thing she knew, Dr. Martinez was wheeling a bed. Ella was lying on it. She seemed completely unaware that she was wheeling her unconscious daughter, who'd probably just been killed or experimented on. _They've turned her into one of their zombies _Angel realized. Then she saw the feathered tip sticking out from underneath her. _So, she got her wings after all._ Angel rested her head and let the blackness slink back in.

We were back on the top deck. "Gazzy, Iggy, still have those bombs?" Gazzy grinned mischievously and pulled out a handful of small explosives, as Iggy pulled out a detonator. I sighed. How the hell did they manage to get on a plane with those? Isn't airport security extremely _high_? "Okay, place them around the ship. Wait until we're off the ship before you set them off. U and A."

And with that we were in the air. But not even seconds after, the entire ship exploded, and the shock wave pushed us forward. "Jesus guys! Not yet! You're going to get us killed!" I screamed at them.

"But it wasn't us!" Gazzy called back. _What? _I asked myself. Then I realized. Dammit. Somebody knew we were there. They had the place rigged to explode on us. A few seconds earlier, and we would have been dead.

"Is everyone fine?" I remembered to ask. I got a couple mumbles of "yes" in reply. We were fine.

Then I realized we had a more pressing matter at hand. We were hovering over the middle of the ocean, hours away from land, with nothing to eat or drink.

**So, did you guys hear? Maximum Ride 8, the last novel will be called **_**Nevermore.**_** Cool title, I think.**

**I'll try to update sometime next week.**

**R&R? **


	6. Chapter 5

I know, I'm terrible at updating. I've had terrible writer's block. This chapter is a bit of a filler, because I want your feedback for next chapter in Fang's PoV. Would you rather have Star or Kate get together with Ratchet?

Five hours into the flight eastward (thank you inner compass!), we finally saw land growing across the horizon. The flight had been silent after we started going east. At one point, Dylan flew up to me to try to comfort me, but saw I just wasn't in the mood.

As we neared land, we saw the Statue of Liberty, and, once again, I was awed by its beauty. I tried not to think that if we failed to stop the DG, it could be a pile of rubble in only days.

Then I saw tiny specks flying from the Statue of Liberty. Way too big to be birds. I squinted, and made out grinning, wolfish faces, showing protruding yellow teeth.

Flying Erasers. And this time, they weren't struggling to fly. In fact, they were flying as gracefully as we were. Crap. More and more flew up, and before long, they were stretching as long as the land. I estimated 200 Erasers against the 5 of us. Double crap.

"Gazzy, Iggy, you wouldn't have happened to have any bombs left?" I asked desperately. The Erasers were still a good distance away, but were forming a huge cluster. Headed right for us.

The rest of the Flock caught on to what I was referencing, and their faces filled with amazement and disbelief. Iggy, sensing something off, asked, "Uh, guys? What's wrong?"

"There's about 200 Erasers headed for us," Dylan replied for me.

Gazzy and Iggy looked through their backpacks. After 30 seconds of searching, they looked up and Iggy shook his head solemnly. "Sorry, Max. We used them all on the ship."

I cursed under my breath. There was absolutely _no way _we could fight all 200 Erasers. And there wasn't really an escape route. Come on, Max, think! There has to be a way out, it can't be over…

**Look up.**

Before I could give the voice a sarcastic reply, a series of explosions blew up almost every Eraser. Those that hadn't tumbled downward into the water, loud splashes erupting every time one of them hit the water. Huh. That was unexpected. But something nagged at the back of my mind.

We didn't set off those explosions. So who did?

So, a bit of a filler, but it's an update. I'll update after I get three answers to that question. Again, Ratchet and Kate, or Ratchet and Star?

**R&R?**


	7. Chapter 6

**So, I tried to get this one up a little quicker than the last. Shout-outs to:**

**AnikaandAj, anonymous, and flash5335!**

Fang POV:

"So man, when are we gonna attack these DG dudes?" Ratchet asked. Fang sighed at his laptop. Since arriving in New York – no, since they left Paris – Ratchet had asked nonstop about fighting the DG. The problem was, none of them had any idea _who _to fight. And it really irked Fang – the lack of information and Ratchet not leaving him alone. Luckily, Star took over for him. "My God, Ratchet, for the last time! We don't have anything at all!" she scolded. Ratchet grinned, like he had hoped for that to happen.

Whatever. He didn't understand Ratchet's flirting, but…were he and Max like that? Him and Maya?

With a sigh, Fang went back to his laptop. He'd found absolutely _nothing_. It didn't help that authorities had taken down the DG website. He'd Google-ed, Bing-ed, and Yahoo-ed keywords like 'DG,' 'Doomsday Group,' 'Paris,' and some of the entire notes they'd received from the DG. But every site that came up had been closed down by some sort of government agency. Nothing. The DG was completely off the grid.

"Fang, I think the website may be hidden in the some of the notes," Holden said next to Maya in the Hotel couch, with a small stack of papers in between them.

"Wait, I think I have it. Look at the letter we got in Paris. Some of the letters have tiny splotches of ink. Look!" she said walking over to him. Fang gave a half smile. Maya. Why couldn't Max just accept that Maya was a different person? Though Hell would probably break loose if his group found out she was Max's clone.

Fang looked out the note. And he definitely just could make out little splotches of ink, almost like accents, but smaller.

L**e**t the O**n**e Light **m**ake your d**a**rk days disa**p**pear. Join **u**s at the Place de la Conco**r**de and experien**c**e the love and acceptan**c**e of the One Light**.** Be part of the solution! We're going to save the planet! Rejoi**c**e!

With l**o**ve, from your friends at the Doo**m**sday Group

If this worked, that meant the website was . Fang typed it in. And after minutes of waiting (terrible hotel wi-fi) the site finally opened. At the top in a banner, were the plain, bold words, "THE DOOMSDAY GROUP." Plans were written on the site, only in pictures to avoid detection in a Google search. This was good, really good. Finally! A break!

He reached over to his phone when his computer beeped for an alert. Fang turned back to his computer. The only alert he'd subscribed to was – no. He'd only subscribed to the emergency news disasters. He clicked on the alert. The title of the article was "Delta Airlines Flight Number 18832 Explodes Over the Atlantic – 493 Casualties, No Survivors"

No. What flight had Nudge texted him that they were on? He checked his messages.

"hey fang! the airport, flight 18832." No! Max couldn't be dead, could she? Fang felt sick.

No there was no way she was dead, no way she would have let herself be killed. Besides, Fang would have known if she died. Wouldn't he?

**So, what do you guys think? What did you think of Nudge's text? How'd I do in Fang's POV?**

**Wanted to clarify one thing about the note: That was the actual note in **_**ANGEL**_, **and I bolded the letters so you could tell which ones were important to the story. **

**Oh, I have a random thought: Did you guys know that Brigid Dywer is a real person? She helped JP in his first Alex Cross book, **_**Along Came a Spider.**_** Her name is in the acknowledgements!**

**R&R?**


	8. Chapter 7

Sorry guys, another filler today. Something big is going to happen soon, a couple big somethings. I think I know what I'm going to do, and something should happen within the next few chapters.

Thank God we landed without attracting too much attention. We were all exhausted and hungry, and the last thing we wanted to do was have another confrontation with the media. They were too distracted by the explosions, anyways. We went to the library, the same one we went to last time we came to New York, partially to research on the DG, but mostly to get our bearings. We'd had a _very _long day.

But one thing still bothered me. If the DG sent those Erasers after us, why blow them up? Unless…the DG didn't send the Erasers. Then who did?

There were only three possibilities I could think of: Jeb, rouge whitecoats, and Itex. All of them were bad.

Could Itex really be back? That would really complicate things. Taking them _and _the DG down seemed nearly impossible. For once, the Voice wasn't there to comment.

The sun was setting. And we'd still accomplished nothing at the computers. "We should probably get going," I said. I didn't get an actual response, but everyone stood up and walked over to me. We left and started heading over to Central Park. When we almost had complete tree cover, Iggy's phone started to ring in his pocket…what the hell? How was that still in his pocket? We'd been flying, shot at on a _plane, _nearly blown up on a boat, and he still had his phone in his pocket?

I tried to listen in on his conversation. "Hello? Oh, hey Fang. Yeah we're alive, who'd you think answered the phone? Really? Ok, I'll tell her." Iggy hung up. I hadn't heard a word Fang had said. He turned to me. "Fang called to make sure we didn't die when our flight exploded. And he said _he_ found the DG website," Iggy snorted. I guess I was glad he thought to call after hearing our flight exploded, but I was pissed he couldn't call _me _himself. As far as the DG website was concerned…couldn't he have called us hours ago while we were still at the library?

Subject 11, formerly known as Angel, stood among DG organizers. "The One Light will save us all," they chanted in unison. "We must kill the humans to save the planet. And in order to that-" the continued. Angel finished. "-We must kill the Flock."

So, there's the setup for some action in the next few chapters. It's a short chapter, but it's an update. R&R?


	9. Chapter 8

**So the past few chapters have been fillers. This chapter actually advances the plot! Shout-outs to: flash5335 and lunapotter629.**

**Angel PoV:**

Angel stood grinning from the ground. The plan was in motion. The DG had found the Flock in New York, and a trap had been set. The One Light insisted that Angel be in charge of the operation. The explosives had been set. Any second now…

**Max PoV:**

I woke to the sound of an explosion. A huge one. My first instinct was to yell at Iggy, but I saw the giant fireball consuming the top of the Empire State Building first. Wait, what? The rest of the Flock also woke, their grogginess wiped away by the sight of the explosion. Scratch that. "What am I supposed to be looking at?" Iggy. Classic.

"The Empire State Building was bombed," Dylan filled him in bluntly. Everyone else was too dumbstruck to respond. After a few seconds, Iggy asked, "How big is it?" I groaned.

I stared at the building. The explosions were only in the top half. "There might still be more bombs. Iggy, do you think you and Gazzy could defuse them if needed?"

"NO!" We all turned to look at Gazzy, shocked. "I can't do it, Max," he whispered before running into the woods. I followed him and before long, I heard the sound of sobbing. Oh God.

He was sitting on a log, crying. When he looked up at me, tears streaked down his face. "I can't do it. Not again. Not after I-" he started crying again. "-killed Angel" he chocked out the last part. Realization struck me. He still blamed himself for Angel's death.

"Gazzy, it wasn't your fault that Angel was killed. The Doomsday Group did that, not you. You saved thousands of lives, and thousands more need you. You _can _do it, Gazzy. Get back at the DG for what they did to her."

"I can't," he muttered.

"Yes you can." After a moment, I added, "Do it for Angel." He looked up with a new spark in his sad eyes. I took his hand and led him out of the woods. He was my little trooper, but he was only 9 and he'd lost his sister. That was more than what most people could take. When I emerged from the forest with Gazzy, the rest of the Flock looked relieved.

Dylan walked up to me. "What do we do now?" He asked me quietly. I thought for a moment. I shrugged. "I guess we go over there and try to save as many people as possible from the explosion."

**Fang PoV:**

Fang woke to a loud bang outside the hotel room window and a bright flash of light. He saw a giant ball of fire erupting at the top of the Empire State Building. "Wow, man," Ratchet muttered. _No kidding _Fang thought. At least the entire upper half of the skyscraper was enveloped in flames. He looked around. Everyone was up. He couldn't help but think about the thousands that must have already died from the explosion.

Maya walked over to him. "What should we do?" she asked him.

Fang paused. That was the million dollar question. "We go out there and save everyone we can." _And hope we survive _Fang thought grimly. This would be a lot harder without the Flock's help. "Leave anything you don't need in here. Hopefully, we'll have time to come back after." With that, Fang led them out of the hotel room door.

**So, just to clarify, Fang's Gang and the Flock don't realize that they're both in New York. Next chapter will be extremely important as far as the plot is concerned. R&R?**


	10. Chapter 9

This is my longest chapter ever (2,049 words and 4 Microsoft Word pages)! And I have never actually been to the Empire State Building, so some facts may be wrong. Just go along with it.

I'm thinking of changing the title to _Evermore _(the last book is called _Nevermore_). Tell me what you think.

Additionally, my Internet is going down on Wednesday for about 2 weeks, so this will be the last update for a few weeks.

Shout-out to: Sierra156

Max PoV:

The streets were hectic. Everyone, and I mean _everyone _was screaming. It was extremely distracting. Police and news vans were already on the scenes. The annoying news lady was saying it was some terrorist attack. The police were setting up barriers to keep the public away. _Good luck with that _I thought.

"C'mon guys, this way," I whispered to them. We shuffled through the crowd, our heads down, when I saw a gap in the barriers. "Quickly," I hissed. I took a step through when I felt something grab at my collar. Crap.

"Hey, no kids allowed in there. It's too dangerous," a policeman scolded in a gruff voice. He started pulling me back into the crowd, which was slowly dissipating as parts of the building were falling down and the fire was spreading. I struggled against him, and his grip tightened. Taking a big risk, I punched him in the side, and his grip loosened as he fell to his knees. "NOW!" I shouted, unfurling my wings. Behind me, I heard their wings unfurl and gasps from the crowd as we took to the air. Through sirens, I heard gunshots piercing the air. _Damn._

We had to get in through a window that _wasn't _in flames. Harder said than done. The only windows that didn't have fire bursting from them made us easy targets.

There was another explosion. Smaller, coming from the side, fire erupting _where I had just been._ Something about their timing was starting to get to me. But the explosion distracted the police and anti-terrorist forces, and they covered their faces. _Now's our chance _I thought. "GUYS! IN HERE!" I screamed, flying into a window. Even with my arms covering my face, flying headfirst through a window hurts like hell. Nudge popped in first, followed shortly by Iggy. Then Dylan came in, but Gazzy was nowhere to be seen. I looked out the window. He wasn't even in sight!

Nudge spoke first. "Uh, guys, where's Gazzy? I mean, he isn't here with us right now and I don't see him outside though I guess all the smoke makes it hard to see out there but he still isn't-" Dylan shut her up and jumped back out the window. We had waited about 30 seconds when the ceiling above us started heating up, turning orange, and fire started cackling. "We give them 10 seconds, then we have to go and meet up somewhere else," I ordered. I got anxious nods in return. I started counting to myself. 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…

On the 8th second, I saw Dylan flying with Gazzy slung over his back. "They're here!" I shouted. Bullets were being fired nonstop, and shots were getting dangerously closer. The last shot just missed Dylan's head. "Hurry!" I called out to them. They lumbered into the window, a bullet grazing Dylan's powerful wings. He gently lowered Gazzy to the floor. I saw the problem almost immediately. Most of the feathers on Gazzy's right wing were singed. It wasn't impossible to fly, but balance was much more difficult that way. "Gazzy?" He looked up at me with a pained expression and forced a smile.

"I'm okay, Max. I can walk," he said weakly.

"Good. We have to get off this floor before the ceiling collapses." We ran over to the stairs and I whispered to Dylan, "Thanks." He smiled at me.

Fang PoV:

Fang's Gang arrived at the scene of a growing crowd at the foot of the Empire State Building. People were screaming, and Special Forces were shooting at the sky. They were too distracted to notice anyone sneaking in. Besides, no one else would want to.

Fang led them in, crouching to stay out of sight. Once they were past the barriers, they went into a full-out sprint for the doors. They weren't noticed until they had opened the glass doors. Bullets shattered the glass, and they had to lean against the solid walls on either side. The stairs were directly behind the door.

"Holden, can you cover us while we run up the stairs?" Fang asked. Holden nodded. Bullets could go right through him without injuring him, making Holden the perfect human shield. "Holden, get to the door! Everyone else, run up the stairs!"

Through Holden's cover, Star, Kate, Ratchet, Maya, Fang, and then Holden charged up. Before long, they arrived at a series of giant bombs, taking up an entire room. "Holy shit," Ratchet let out a low whistle.

Fang stared. "I guess we should try to…defuse them. Anyone know how?" Then he saw a group already started on a bomb. He gaped at them.

Max PoV:

I felt someone staring at me, and I whirled around, shocked at who I saw. My eyes narrowed. "What are you doing here?" I demanded. Fang was just as confused as I was.

"Trying to stop the DG," he stammered after a short pause.

My eyes narrowed further. "You know what I meant. Why are you in New York?"

He shrugged. "Our flight landed in New York, so we stopped here. You?"

"Closest stop after our plane exploded." I sighed. "We should probably try to work together on these bombs."

Gazzy had his eyebrow furrowed in concentration. "All of these bombs are exactly the same. They're incredibly simple. Cut the large red wire, pull out the short blue wire, then cut the yellow and white wires at the same time.

"Um, what was that again?" Kate asked.

"I'll go through it for each bomb. Here are wire cutters," Gazzy said, moving onto another bomb and motioning to a bag of supplies. We all took some and walked over to random bombs. "Okay, find the large red wire. Cut it, but make sure you don't cut anything else. Find the short blue wire. Pull it all the way out. Then find the white and yellow wires. Hold them both in your hand. Take the wire cutter so it will cut both of them, and cut them in half. Then, make a small indent on the frame so we know we've disarmed it." Gazzy led us through multiple bombs until there were just 4 bombs left.

Gazzy began his instructions, but I was confused. "Gazzy, this bomb doesn't have a red wire." I looked at it closely. It had _much _more wires than the previous bombs I'd defused. Plus, it had a red blinking light. Wait. The red blinking light was a series of numbers. It was a timer.

0:06:52

Crap. "Gazzy, come here! I think this is the main bomb. It has a timer on it." I called out.

He turned to me and started walking over as everyone else finished theirs. He looked at the bomb. "This'll take me at least 10 minutes." I pointed at the timer. It was down to 6 minutes exactly. "Oh…"

I watched the timer as he started defusing. With the bomb almost taken apart, I gave him a warning. "1 minute left." Gazzy's face wrinkled in concentration. "10 seconds." Gazzy placed the wire cutters over a wire, then switched, and switched back. "5 seconds." 4…3…2… "1 second!" Gazzy clipped a wire. The clock hit 0, but there was no explosion. We both sighed with relief. "Good job, Gazzy," I said, ruffling his hair. He just grinned. I stared at the bomb Gazzy barely managed to defuse. There was a tiny handwritten note taped on next to the wires that Gazzy didn't remove. I picked it up.

_Something you have lost is hidden underneath._

It couldn't mean…no, we saw the explosion. We looked for hours, looked everywhere. I was shaking. Dylan walked over to me. "You okay?" he asked me quietly. I lifted my trembling hand and gave him the note. He stared at it, then at me. "You don't think…it means Angel?" he whispered.

I nodded. "I don't think they're talking about someone's lost wedding ring."

"Underneath…maybe under one of these desks? Or on a lower floor?"

I nodded. "We'll check them both." I walked over to Fang. "Can you guys check the floor below us?"

He looked confused. "Check for what?"

I muttered something inaudible. He raised an eyebrow. "Angel," I whispered, and if we hadn't had super hearing, it would have slipped by him. He gave me a small, understanding nod.

I got the Flock to start looking under every desk, but we found nothing on the floor. "Let's check the floor below us."

"What are we even looking for?" Iggy asked, who was searching by feeling the bottoms of desks.

"I don't know, something to help fight the DG," I lied.

His unseeing eyes stared at me. "You're lying through your teeth," he accused.

I turned away from him. "Let's get going, guys," I said, trying to avoid the conversation.

We arrived at the next floor to find Fang discouraged. "Get the floor beneath us," I told him.

"Are you sure she's even here?" he asked. I didn't answer. He sighed. "I'll take them downstairs."

"Thank you," I whispered. He gave me one of his half smiles. Only a few weeks ago, that would have made my heart melt. How different times are now.

The Flock and I checked every desk, and we found _nothing._ There was only one desk left, and it was facing a different direction than every other desk we'd checked. I kneeled down at it. I checked both sides underneath it, and then looked up. Bound and gagged to the top of the desk was my baby.

"ANGEL!" I screamed, joy flooding my voice. The rest of the flock came over and helped me get her down. Tears of happiness started falling down my face, and I started crying. "My baby. I thought I'd lost you. I thought I'd never see you again." The whole time she said nothing, but returned our embraces.

Fang PoV:

Fang heard shouts of joy from the floor above. _They found her_ he thought. Despite himself, he began to grin. He started walking to the stairway, taking a step up, smiling like a fool. Just then, he heard a gun cock and felt the barrel of the gun push against the back of his head. He closed his eyes. He would regret this. "U AND A!" He yelled up the stairs before a hand clamped over his mouth and started leading him down the stairs. He had no choice but to go willingly.

Angel PoV:

The plan had been going perfectly! Then the stupid guards arrived on the floor below. When Fang called up to them, Max was torn between wanting to leave and going down to help.

We should go down to help them. Angel projected to Max.

I know, but there was something he wanted us to get away from.

Angel frowned. These guards were ruining everything! Angel didn't have time for this. Angel used her mind control powers on Max. "We should go down there and help them," Max decided. Angel grinned.

They descended slowly, low to the ground. Max looked around a corner, then waved them forward.

"FREEZE!" a man ordered, a gun pointed at Max's head. In his grasp was Fang.

You will let the boy go, lower your gun, and walk away. You will order your comrades to release anyone they have seized. The man looked dazed as he released Fang, holstered his gun, and walked down the stairs. Angel just barely heard his commands to release everyone. Before long, feet were shuffling up, and Fang's Gang had rejoined them.

It happened so quickly, and Angel didn't have to stay in his mind. The DG had made her much more powerful. After the mission, she would be given the abilities of the Flock, of those she had killed.

"Wait, how are we getting out now? The building's still on fire," Holden pointed out.

"I can get us out," Angel said.

"How?" Ratchet snickered. "You're just a little girl.

Angel narrowed her eyes. Then she remembered. The old her hadn't told them about her ability to read minds. First, she sent out a message to both the Flock and Fang's Gang to do what she said until they were out, and then to the guards and people outside, ordering them to let them pass and act like nothing ever happened. It worked perfectly. Angel grinned. She could get used to this increased power.

You guys have no idea how long it took me to write this chapter. It's been 4 days since I started this, and I have spent at least 3 hours a day since then on it. I tried to make it long for the upcoming drought of chapters starting Wednesday. So please, R&R for all the work I put into this. And remember: Should I change the name to _Nevermore_?


	11. Chapter 10

**I noticed last chapter that I made a typo regarding the title. One time I suggested **_**E**_**vermore, one time I suggested **_**N**_**evermore. So, I meant to ask, do you guys like **_**Evermore **_**as the title?**

**And this will be the last update for 2 weeks. Sorry, Internet's going down.**

**Shout outs to: galeprimrue, iLuVtOwRiTe1998, and Sierra156.**

Somehow Angel got us out of there without, well, anything. It was strange, and I mentally noted to ask her about it later. For now I was just too damn happy to care.

It was decided that we should stick with Fang for the night, which meant the woods. Kate offered to get everyone's stuff from their hotel room, which didn't have enough room for all of us.

I turned around. "Hey, Angel, what did the DG do to you while you were there?" I asked her. "It's important that we know."

Her eyes began to tear up and she looked down. "I'm not sure, Max. I don't think I can talk about it."

I nodded. "When your ready, then. Maybe in the morning." She gave a small nod in agreement.

When Kate returned, we went who would be on guard first. I offered to go first, and Angel offered to go second. I tried to tell her not to, to rest instead, but she was too stubborn. After her, the watch would be Fang, Kate, and finally Ratchet.

Have you ever woken up to being strangled by a seven year old? I have. Take my word for it – it sucks.

Sometime after my shift, I felt something grab onto my neck and stop my air supply. I could hold my breath for a long time, but I'd need air eventually.

I swung my head back, in attempt to knock back my attacker. I missed, but saw my attackers face. I was gazing straight into blue eyes, holding a hatred I didn't know was possible. _Angel._

She had been grinning wickedly. "Die Max, die," she whispered in a quiet, eerie, singsong voice. I felt my lung begin to strain for air. Nothing was working. I was thrashing, but Angel's grip wouldn't loosen. I only had one idea left. I let my body go limp, feigning death. I set up the strongest mind blocks I could to fake dying. And it _worked._ Angel loosened her grip for half a second, and I made it count. The moment she did, I whipped out my wings and began thrashing, kicking, throwing punches anywhere I could. One way or another, I got out of her grasp. I whirled around and tackled her to the ground, screaming to everyone else to get up.

I was on top of Angel. **Let me go.** Why not? She wouldn't try it again, anyways.

I began to lift my hands when I realized what she was doing and quickly clamped my hands back on her. "MIND BLOCKS!" I screamed as a warning. If she got into even one of our minds…

I felt Angel pushing, trying to break into my mind. _I can't let her_, I told myself.

After a short fight, we had Angel pinned down. We carried her over to a small clearing we had found only a few minutes away. As far as we could tell, she hadn't broken any of our mind blocks – yet.

"Star, remember that sound you made in Paris, and how it got through to everyone? Do you think you could do that to Angel?" Maya asked. I had to admit it was genius. It was the only chance we had.

Star simply shrugged. "Sure." We held Angel in place as Star began.

It had been 3 _hours _since Star had started. "It's not working!" she called to us.

"5 more minutes. Please," I begged. Star didn't reply but continued. We _needed _this to work.

Not long into the 5 minutes, Angel stopped struggling and went limp. Her eyes closed, and slowly opened again. "Guys? What happened?" she asked weakly. And just like that, we had our Angel back.

So this was a mid-length chapter. Not great, but not that bad. I wanted to get up one last update before I lost my Internet.

**Now, to galeprimrue: Sorry, but I doubt I'll write another 2,000 word chapter for a long time, because 1: I'd run out of ideas, 2: I usually find a good place to end the chapter before then, 3: Updates would come much less often, and I'd rather update more often when I can.**

**R&R?**


	12. Chapter 11

For the past 11 days, I've been vacationing in Ireland! I spent 2 days in Dublin, 8 days in Castletownbere (a small fishing town my grandfather grew up in) and 1 day in Shannon. It was fun, but I spent and entire week without Wi-Fi. By the time I got to Shannon, I had at least 15 chapter updates to read.

Anyways, we got back last night, and I worked to get up this chapter. I pre-wrote this chapter in Ireland in several different sessions, so hopefully it comes out well.

Just one more thing before the chapter: I've decided to kidnap a character! I'll explain it more at the end of the chapter.

Shout out to: Sierra156

It was the greatest feeling in the world knowing that I truly had Angel back. It filled the empty feeling that had me paralyzed for days.

We settled back in at our campsite, sitting on fallen logs and tree stumps covered in moss. I couldn't help but notice that Fang was sitting next to Maya. I found myself holding hands with Dylan. Angel was sitting to my left, leaning against me.

"Angel, do you remember what they did to you?" I asked her quietly, but loudly enough for everyone to hear after a short moment of silence.

She paused, deep in thought. She frowned and slowly shook her head. "No. Sorry, Max."

We lowered our heads in disappointment. We were out of leads, back at square one. A minute passed. Angel looked up. "But I _did _overhear that they're moving their headquarters to Death Valley. And the One Light will be there." Or not. She turned and looked up at me. "Do you think-?"

I nodded. "The School." I stood up. "Pack up, everyone. We're going to Arizona."

Since not all of us could fly, and we had decided to stick together, we had to get a car. It had gone like this:

"So, guys, like how're we gonna get to Arizona?" Ratchet questioned.

I shrugged. "We get a car or two."

Star inquired next. "And by get, you mean…"

"Steal."

Kate gaped at Fang. "We're going to steal – a car," she said, horrified and dumbstruck.

"What else are we going to do? Go to Cars 'R' Us?" Iggy joked.

Kate, Star, and Holden paled and shook their heads. Ratchet, on the other hand, offered to hotwire a car for us. "What kinda car do you want?" he asked us.

Fang and I looked at each other. "Probably 2 vans," I said. Ratchet shook his head in disgust, and I think I heard him mutter, "No taste," as he walked off to the road. Fang and I followed him, and told everyone else to wait behind for a few minutes.

In under 2 minutes, he returned with a pink van. A _hot pink _van. I crossed my arms. "No freaking way," I growled.

Ratchet started laughing while Fang smirked at my anger. "What, little lady can't handle a little bit a pink?" Ratchet snorted in between breaths.

I started glowing red, and it took everything in my not to punch him in the gut. I was about to tell him to go get another one when everyone else just _had _to come over. Specifically, Nudge.

"Oh my God, Max is that our car! It's so awesome and it's a great pink color I love it how on Earth did you find it we better be keeping it we're keeping it Max aren't we, can we please, please, please keep it, Max!" Nudge squealed without taking a breath.

I sighed. If I said no, she would complain for the whole trip and I would never hear the end of it. "We can keep it, Nudge."  
"Thank you, Max, thank you! I can't wait until I can get my own car it will be the same pink okay maybe brighter but-" Nudge was cut off by Holden clamping a hand over her mouth. He removed it slowly, and Nudge looked annoyed, but not angry like she usually does when we cut her off. "Anyways, thank you sooooo much Max!" Nudge celebrated. Ratchet chuckled and I made a face at him.

When Ratchet returned with the second van (jet black, much to Fang's liking), Fang agreed to follow us to the School. Even if we did get separated, we both knew where to go.

We walked off to our separate cars, and I hopped into the driver's seat, when I realized something, a very critical fact that should have come to me sooner; in the past year, I still hadn't learned how to drive.

I just realized that this chapter sounded a lot like it was Rax (Ratchet+Max). Don't worry, it isn't.

I really love the next chapter. I'll do my best to get it up in a few days. School starts in 3 weeks for me, and once it does, I might not be able to update much.

Now, as I was saying before, I'm planning on kidnapping a character. Seeing as just about everyone has already been kidnapped, I want to hear who _you_ think I should. I'll take recommendations, pick my top 4 and have you vote on them.

So, as always, R&R?


	13. Chapter 12

You know what, I've changed my mind. Since no one gave recommendations on which character to kidnap, I've decided that the first recommendation I like is who I'll kidnap. Basically, anyone but a whitecoat.

Oh, and the Louisiana line is referring to a quote in Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports. "Louisiana: the state road maintenance forgot."

Shout-out to: Sierra156

You'd think that I'd have learned how to drive by know. It's only a skill I've used how many times now?

I guess I _could _drive, but I had struggled to drive just us. There was _no way _I could lead another car there in one piece. I'd have to be _extremely _lucky. I grabbed the steering wheel and noticed the gas gauge almost at E.

Great. I was driving across the country in a pink van that I didn't know how to drive with an empty tank. I could only hope that New York's roads were better than Louisiana's.

"Here goes nothing," I muttered. I put my foot on the gas pedal, and slowly eased forward. I edged my way to some back roads to avoid the highway. They tend to get cluttered after bombings.

I sped up on the small, windy road. We had seen no one so far. I hit 60…70…75…

I looked back to check that Fang was still following when CRASH!

A black SUV rammed into the front of the car, our windows disintegrating and shards of glass flying at our faces. The crash stopped the car, and my face flew into the airbag. Behind us, I felt us get hit again, as our car rocked again. Fang hadn't been able to stop in time.

"Report," I moaned, my voice sounding strange. I probably had a broken nose, based on the blood pouring out of it. I'd need to get it set soon.

"Couple scratches, but I'm fine," Dylan replied.

"Nothing serious here," Iggy said.

"Same," Gazzy piped up.

"I'm fine," Nudge reported.

"Same. Wait, Max, lookout!" Angel screamed.

I whirled around. Untouched Erasers were filing out of the car. Crap. "OUT, NOW!" I screamed as I jumped out of the van. In one fluid motion, I punched an Eraser in the face, whirled into a roundhouse kick to the gut of another, and clapped my hands around the ears of another.

Just then, an Eraser grabbed me around the neck and started strangling me. I tried to force the hands off, when I realized that they weren't covered in fur.

"I failed one time, Max," Angel hissed into my ear. My lungs started gasping for air. My vision became blurry. "I will not fail again." I was becoming incredibly dizzy from the lack of oxygen. Then, Angel let go. I saw her hands fly to her neck, and the rest of the Flock and Fang's Gang copied her. There were darts sticking into their necks. _We had fallen into a trap. _I felt a dart **thud **into my own neck, and the last thing I saw before darkness took over were Erasers carrying everyone else, and then myself, into a large, dark van that had just pulled up.

**Okay, I lied last chapter. **_**Next **_**chapter is where it gets good. This was just a filler, and I apologize. Nonetheless, R&R.**


	14. Chapter 13

**I'm sorry about the delay, but I am trying to update as much as possible. I'm starting high school in 2 weeks and I'm taking all honors classes, so I might not be able to update.**

**Fang: Poor you.**

**Me: Ah, yes, everyone, meet Fang. He'll be "staying" in my closet from now on.**

**Fang: There's no room in there.**

**Me: Too bad. Get used to it.**

**Fang: -mumbles about escaping-**

**Me: Anyways. Now that I've kidnapped Fang, I feel it's time for another disclaimer. I do not legally own Fang or the Maximum Ride series. All legal ownership goes to James Patterson. Also, Marshsameelobear, I did get your recommendation on a kidnapee, but My friend had already recommended Fang through a text.**

**Fang: Damn your friend.**

**Me: -sighs- Anyways, shout-outs to: Sierra156 (who is now my top reviewer) and Marshsameelobear. **

**Max PoV:**

I woke up in a cell, lying on the cool, linoleum floor. I jolted upright and quickly scanned the room. The bare white walls were accompanied by nothing. As far as I could tell, I was alone in here. I looked around more slowly, hoping to find an escape route. Frustrated, I looked down. I couldn't even see a door. I looked slightly to the left, and nearly jumped. Nearly leaning up against me, lying on his side, was Fang. He was still unconscious.

For a second, I simply watched Fang sleep. Then I gave him a small nudge on the arm and whispered, "Fang. Hey, Fang. Wake up." At first, he did nothing, but began to stir after a moment. His head rolled to the side, and he slowly sat up as the sedative wore off.

"Max?" He asked as he came to. "What the hell happened?"

I paused for a moment, deep in thought. What _did _happen? "I think we were in a car crash. We were ambushed by Erasers. Shot by dart guns." I paused again. "I think Angel tried to kill me."

My voice fell mid-sentence, and I fought off tears. She was working for the Doomsday Group by _choice_. My baby had betrayed me and tried to _kill _me. I felt Fang slide his arm around my shoulder to comfort me.

Merely seconds later, a hole appeared in the wall, and two armed Erasers walked in. "Come. The Director has requested to see you," One of the two said in a monotone. Fang and I stared at each other as we stood up. The _Director_?

**Dylan PoV:**

Dylan's eyes slowly began to blink and open. He had no idea how long he'd been out. With his eyes still adjusting, everything was blurry, including the outline of the figure sitting in the corner of the room, looking at him. "Max?" he asked, but the moment the words left his mouth, he knew he was wrong.

"No," the figure scowled at him. "Maya.'

Dylan felt his face redden slightly. "Sorry," he mumbled, and an awkward silence filled the air as they stared at each other. Despite the obvious visible differences, she was _so much _like Max. "So…" he began to break the silence, but before he could finish, a pair of Erasers walked in through a recently materialized entrance. "The Director has ordered to see you."

**Max PoV:**

The Erasers led us out of the cell and into an equally dull hallway, their guns poking at our backs. Halfway through the hall, a doorway appeared and two more Erasers led out Maya and Dylan. Before we reached the end of the hallway, everyone was in line.

Finally, we came to a larger room, with more obvious doors and whitecoats frantically running back and forth, stacks of papers in hand. The room was still bare white, but it seemed more important. There appeared to be a large open office at the end of the room, with a large seat, a huge desk, and tons of filing cabinets. And the Erasers were leading us right to it.

There were two people at the desk, one of them showing the other something in some file. The one holding the file was in their mid-20s, while the other was in their young-30s. As we got nearer, the younger of the two scurried away.

"Director, sir," An Eraser in the front called out to him. "Maximum Ride. Just as you requested."

The man, now sitting down, looked up from his desk. "Good," he acknowledged, then turned to me. I almost gasped. I was looking at a splitting image of Dylan. "I've been looking forward to this confrontation for so long, Max. Welcome to the new Itex."

**Fang: That ending sucked.**

Me: Shut up! It did not suck…that badly. I was going to put more, but I wanted to get this chapter up. What can you do?

Fang: You could've made them wait and written more.

Me: Stop being annoying or you sleep in the closet again.

Fang: -mumbles- Not if I escape first.

Me: What was that?

Fang: -shuts up-

Me: Okay then. I'll try to update again within the next few days so you don't have to wait in suspense. Review if you think Fang deserves better than my tiny closet.

Fang: Please review.

-MaximumX and Fang


	15. Chapter 14

**Me: I don't have much to say, so I'll cut right to it.**

**Shout-outs to: Sierra156 (and we're not the only ones!) and flash5335 (welcome back!)**

_ Welcome to the new Itex. _The older Dylan's words continued to play over and over in my head. What did he mean the _new _Itex? I thought we'd destroyed them.

And there was something strange about this other Dylan. Dr. Hans had said Dylan was a clone, but of someone that had _died._ Something didn't add up.

When he didn't continue I realized that he, the _Director, _was waiting for a response. "What the hell are you talking about? If I remember correctly, we already destroyed you morons. And where the hell did _you _come from? You're supposed to be _dead._"

The Director sat calmly until the last part. He looked genuinely surprised. "Where did you hear that from?" He inquired.

"He," I said, pointing to our Dylan, "was cloned from somebody that died in a car accident. And you," I continued, pointing to the Director, "are not dead." I crossed my arms.

** And where did you hear that?**

The Voice. No, it couldn't be…

"And where did you hear that?" he echoed. He was smiling strangely at me, as if we were sharing some big secret. _Maybe we are, _I thought.

"Dr. Gunther-Hagen," our Dylan called out, passionate rage burning in his eyes. Dr. Hans had been his father figure.

"So _that's_ what he told you," the Director said, as if that somehow explained everything.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Dylan questioned angrily.

The Director sighed, and looked at me. "Perhaps I should explain. As you know, Itex used to be an organization that performed illegal testing, before you destroyed it.

"After that, worked to recreate ourselves, but we were split in two. Half of us realized our mistakes, and wanting to right our wrongs, test only on willing subjects.

"The other half wanted to continue what we had been doing, only worse and more extreme. Eventually, our differences drove us apart. Those of us that wanted to test legally recreated Itex, with me at the lead. Everyone else formed the basis of the Doomsday Group.

"From the beginning, I realized that we had to destroy them if we wanted to stop them. I understood that _you, _Max, are the game changer, so to speak. I needed to get to you, gain your trust so you could help us. That's when I reached out to Dr. Gunther-Hagen, and old colleague of mine. I gave him the task of creating a clone of me infused with avian DNA. I told him that the clone had to be physically matured to as close to 14 as possible. He succeeded, and made sure that you got close to gain each other's trust, so I could "meet" you while still working. It turned out later that he was a traitor, and he was working for the Doomsday Group. Despite what he had done for them, they executed him.

"We had the advantage over them until the mastered their mass mind-control device a few months ago and came up with a guise. Since then, they've become too powerful, and we needed your help _immediately_. I apologize for the way we got you here but we had no other choice. And I know for a fact, Max, that if we had just told you, you would have refused to come in. Don't even try to deny it.

"Please, Max. Help us. I promise we have changed. Everyone here that has been tested on volunteered, without any force. We have the signed documents right here. Max, help us do what you were always intended to do. Help us save the world. All of our sources will be available to you." He paused, waiting for my response.

"Hell no."

"Max, please," he said, his voice desperate. "We can and _will _help you."

"I said no."

"Max, we have reason to believe that the Doomsday Group is going to attack LA, and then perform a public execution of three people. Think carefully, Max. Does the Doomsday Group have three people you care about?" _Ella, Mom, and Jeb._

I gritted my teeth and glared at him. "You're lying."

The Director stood up. "But what if I'm not? Is it worth it? Do you really want to risk their lives just to spite me?" I said nothing. "Please, Max, we have a helicopter prepared to fly you their right now." I remained silent. "Max, I swear, we have changed. I've let tests be conducted on myself." We were all dead silent, so quiet that I could hear whitecoats shoes hitting the floor, papers rumpling, the squeaks of wheels on carts.

"You have to stop the Doomsday Group and save the world, anyways, Max. I'm offering you help," he said more quietly, almost whispering.

I sighed. He wouldn't let us leave until I said yes. "Fine. I still don't trust you, but I guess I have no choice."

The Director's, or I guess Dylan's, face fell. "Hopefully I can change that in the future." I saw him glance to the side, something he'd done during his speech to us. I followed his gaze, and I saw what he was looking at, which slightly disturbed me.

He was shooting sideways glances at Fang.

**Fang: You make me sound like the bad guy.**

**Me: Nah, but it's important regarding the plot later on. So just in case you got lost or confused:**

**Max finds out that the new Director of Itex was the original Dylan, and that Itex is now made of changed whitecoats, while the DG was formed by scientists that broke away from Itex. In the end, Max decides to work with them. In short.**

**Fang: That was the worst summary ever. **

**Me: You live to insult me, don't you?**

**Fang: Until you let me go, yeah. **

**Me: You'll never learn, will you?**

**Review!**

**-MaximumX and Fang**


	16. Chapter 15

Wow. I think that was my best chapter yet review-wise. And to Sierra156, Max clearly doesn't like or trust Jeb, but I don't think she'd want him killed. Remember when he was shot in book 6, and how guilty Max felt? Oh, and I think this chapter will make you feel better about Angel.

**Sorry about the fillerness of this chapter. Next chapter should be important, and a repeat length of the New York chapter. Hopefully.**

**Shout-outs to: galeprimrue, iLuVtOwRiTe1998, and Sierra156**

The Director slowly stood up from his seat. He started walking to our left and motioned for us to follow. "Come. The helicopter is this way."

I took a step and paused. "Wait." I turned around, looking into the most hateful eyes any seven year old could ever have. I looked back at the Director, who had turned around at my voice. "Angel wants to kill me. She's working for the DG."

He paused, deep in concentration, his eyes boring into Angel's, hers boring into his. After 30 seconds, the Director looked away, shaking his head and swearing.

"She's still under DG mind control."

"What are you talking about? We already freed her from it."

The Director shook his head. "It must've a ploy, something to trick you."

If that was the case, it explained a lot. Angel's attempts at murder, and her sudden hatred directed to everyone, especially me.

"Can you…fix her?" I asked, my voice nearing desperation. If there was any sliver of hope of getting Angel back…

He shook his head. "I'm not sure. We've succeeded in a few cases, but, to be honest, none of them were under the same intense control Angel's under." My face fell. I just _had _to get Angel back. "While you're in LA, I'll do my best to get Angel back to her normal self."

I paused to think. I really didn't want Angel to be left alone with this guy, but it was her only chance. What choice did I have? "Okay."

The Director smiled warmly, not a sinister smile. "Great. I'll have two guards watch her while I get you to the helicopter, and I'll start working on her right away." With that, he had us follow him to an extremely large elevator, entirely white. Just like everything else.

We began ascending almost immediately, and I honestly didn't feel us moving at all, even with my fine-tuned senses.

At last, we were at the landing pad on top of what appeared to be an ordinary skyscraper, other than the fact that it was in the middle of freaking nowhere.

The helicopter's blades were already spinning, and I turned to face the Director halfway there. "Hey, two quick question. How long have we been out, and where exactly are we?"

He smiled slyly, and responded, "You have been out for approximately 2 hours, and right now, you are in Death Valley. You are at what was once the school."

Not my best chapter ever…no rude, insulting comment from Fang? That could be bad.

**(10 minutes later) Oh crap. Fang isn't here. I think he tried to escape. I think I'm going to go try to find him now. I'll get back to you next chapter on whether or not I've found him yet.**

**-MaximumX**


	17. Chapter 16

Hey everyone. I've been waiting for this chapter for a while. I rushed to finish it before 1) school started, and 2) before we got hit by the hurricane and possibly lost power.

**Fang: Hurricanes are not fun.**

**Me: Oh yeah, I found Fang!**

**Fang: I was in the back yard, right where I'd told you I'd be! And you said OK!**

**Me: That's what they all say.**

**Fang: No it isn't.**

**Me: Okay, whatever. You're still being punished. Part 1 of the punishment is no bacon for a month, -laughs evilly-**

**Fang: And part 2?**

**Me: You'll see at the end of the chapter.**

**Shout-out to: galeprimrue**

I was amazed. For such a large helicopter, I was amazed it didn't have any doors, other than for the pilot. We all had comfy seats with straps, but the cabin was always open. Which made escaping a lot easier if we needed to.

The landscape changed very quickly, and, after only an hour, I could already see the skyline of LA. The Doomsday Group's next target.

The next thing I knew, we were falling right out of the sky. A loud explosion overhead rocked the already unstable cage of death. Flames flashed by the opening and a quick glance showed a bullet hole straight through the pilot's head, his body leaning on the control panels in the cockpit. We only had a minute, maybe less, before we crashed. "U and A! U and A!" I screamed, ready to jump out of the falling helicopter. The field below us was filling quickly with DG mutants. There were tiger mutants, snake and lizard mutants, and some ordinary looking people, but I'd be foolish to think they were.

"Wait!" Star called out, seeing me leaning on the edge. "What about us?" She asked, pointing to herself, Kate, Ratchet and Holden.

I paused to think. We didn't have enough time! "Fang, Take Holden. I'll take Kate, Maya get Ratchet, and Dylan, get Star. Now go!" No sooner than I finished, gunfire erupted. A bullet nearly hit me. I grabbed Kate, and jumped.

The extra load was weighing me down, and I was falling way too fast. I started flapping my wings vigorously, and the strain felt like they were being yanked out of my back.

"Hold on," I warned. I started flying straight up at full speed – _my _full speed. Finally, I was gaining altitude, enough to make a safer landing. I just hoped it would be enough.

Around me, Fang and Dylan were doing the same. I turned around, and started descending towards the clearing, bullets whizzing by my face.

As I neared the ground, I told Kate to start running. When her feet were a foot away, I let go of her and she starting running smoothly, and knocked the gun out of a mutant's hand. I kept flying, straight into a lion hybrid's chest, sending it flying backwards into another mutant, starting the domino effect. I had taken out at least 20 mutants in one hit. Which left us with about 1 freaking thousand more.

The rest of the Flock landed around me, and we started getting to work. Some were armed, some weren't, but very few of them were very well trained in fighting.

Some of them seemed pointless, in fighting, and even in creating. Almost as if they were made just to see if it was possible.

Because it was so crowded, it was _very _easy to take out multiple mutants with a single hit. Part of me wondered if this was intended, for us to become so tired taking out most of the mutants, and being finished off after.

My first targets were the mutants with gun. A quick chop to the wrists, and an elbow to the neck. I really didn't want to kill them, but I didn't entirely have a choice. I tried my best to spare their lives, but it was literally hit or miss.

Before long, more than half the mutants were on the ground, unconscious. I felt myself becoming increasingly tired. By the time we were finished, I'd be completely exhausted. I had no idea how we were going to get back without a ride.

I punched a mutant in the face when I heard the blades of a helicopter coming in from the distance. I tried to ignore it, and kept fighting. Before long, it was right overhead, and ropes fell to the ground. Uh-oh. Mutants started sliding down, ready to join the fight. At least 100 had come down when someone started spraying bullets at the lines, picking off multiple mutants before the ropes were severed. A few tried to jump out, but just went splat when they hit the ground. The rest learned, and just stayed put. Despite it being completely ineffective, the helicopter lingered.

The mutants that had just come out of the helicopter were a bit stronger than the ones we'd been fighting. And when I say a bit, I mean just _barely. _These mutants did more than sit around and give a weak slap. No, instead, they gave long, exaggerated, yet powerful punches, that were easy to dodge, and took out others instead. One quick hit to the gut took them out instantly.

Before long, there were 50 mutants left, total, and the helicopter was still there. A lady parachuted out of it, and it flew away. A quick glance in between punches revealed that it was Beth, that DG organizer from Paris. Another punch, another five down. Man, I could barely _stand _now. Roundhouse kick takes out 12. There were only six mutants left, plus Beth.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fang walk over to her, looking furious. He punched her in the face, knocking her to the ground. He stood over her, contemplating over what to do to her next. He went to stomp on her face when she pulled out the gun. A fair-sized pistol, and she aimed it right at Fang's face.

The gun went off before any of us knew what was happening, or had time to react. Where Fang's head had once been was now a bloody pulp. I was in a rage. I ran over to a laughing Beth, ready to rip her head off with my bear hands. Before I got to her, she turned the gun around and shot herself in the head. This lady, who had killed hundreds, maybe thousands, was dead. But so was my soul mate. Fang was gone for good, and there was no getting him back.

**Fang: Seriously? You really killed me off?**

**Me: -nods-**

**Fang: Just to punish me?**

**Me: -nods-**

**Fang: You are messed up.**

**Me: Eh, I was gonna do it anyways. Now I just have an excuse! –grins-**

**See you next chapter – review?**

**-MaximumX and Fang**


	18. Chapter 17

So some of you may hate me for last chapter. I may have also lost some readers. But please, if you haven't given up on this story yet, please don't. I promise I'll make Fang's death up to you later.

**Fang: How do you plan on doing that? I was the best character!**

**Me: Well, yeah, but I can and will. I can't tell you how, because that would spoil a major part of the plot, but just trust me.**

**Shout-outs to: galeprimrue and Sierra156 (for this chapter and last).**

Losing Fang was probably the worst thing that could have happened. We were all completely devastated. None of us were saying anything – for once, that included Nudge. I remembered the last time he'd died, and how I'd managed to save him. I only wished I could save him again.

Fang had been my partner, my best friend. For the first 14 years of my life, he always had my back. Always. We'd had are ups ands downs, but in the end, he'd always been there for me.

The past few weeks though…it was beginning to feel like he was more of a stranger than my soul mate, my best friend, the guy I'd spent my whole life with. It was like everything between us was gone in an instant.

Fang's death was depressing, and I admit, I cried. Yes, I, Maximum Ride, the girl with no emotions, cried.

I think the saddest part was that we didn't have enough time to throw him a proper funeral, to say our final goodbyes. We dug a shallow pit and carefully placed Fang's body in it. We refilled the hole, and dropped a handful of dirt on his final resting place. It painfully reminded me of Ari's funeral.

I made sure I was last to drop my handful of dirt. I let it fall slowly, watching it trickle between my fingers. "I love you," I whispered, barely loud enough for myself to hear.

So badly, I wanted to fly away and scream, to get as far away from here as possible. But I knew that wasn't possible. The Flock needed a leader now, more than ever. So did Fang's Gang. Their leader and organizer was dead. Chances were that I would be leading them, too. So I had to do my best to cope with the pain.

I took a deep breath. "We should probably head to the city and check into a hotel. You know, just in case the DG really is going to attack." I got a handful of solemn nods. We trudged out of the field and into the city, stopping at a hotel. We probably looked like a mess, how bloodied and bruised we looked, but we were too tired and upset to care.

We spent two days in Los Angeles, waiting for something to happen, something DG related. Waiting for something or someone from the DG so we could get revenge for Fang. On the morning of the 3rd day, it became apparent that nothing was going to happen. It was a trap, and ambush. There was going to be no attack on LA.

We began the long flight back to Arizona. Dylan, Iggy, Maya, and I carried Ratchet, Holden, Kate, and Star, respectively. The flight took 8 hours of nonstop flying. We took no breaks at all. Not for food, not for rest. We weren't hungry, and we were so numb that we didn't feel any pain. At long last, we landed in Arizona, the large, white, futuristic building in front of us. We walked towards the entrance, where a pair of guards stood watch. As we neared the building, the guards halted us, asking what our business being there was. "Can we speak with the Director?" I asked, no emotion in my voice.

One of the guards pulled out a phone, talked into it, then put it away as he led us inside.

I really don't have much to say. I'm writing this on my laptop while the power's out due to Hurricane Irene. I'll post this as soon as the power comes back on. But after this, my school starts, and updates will become very uncommon. So if there's months between updates, don't think I ditched the story. I promise, I _will_ finish this, hopefully before Nevermore comes out.

Fang: So much for not having much to say.

Me: Whatever.

Later people. Review?

-MaximumX and Fang


	19. Chapter 18

_Hey guys. I wanted to get one last update in before school. Hurricane Irene knocked power out for 80% of my town, so school last week was cancelled._

_**Fang: Lucky you.**_

_**Me: I know.**_

_**Shout-out to: Sierra156**_

The new Itex headquarters were a huge skyscraper, easily 100 stories. I'm amazed that it was never noticed.

We had entered on the ground floor, completely and utterly exhausted. The Director was near the top of the building, but not quite the last floor. The elevator to his floor was dreadfully slow. Plus, we were in the _smallest_ elevator they had, with two armed guards staring at us. It's times like these that I hate being claustrophobic.

When we finally got to the Director's floor, we found out that he had just gotten into an important meeting, and that we'd have to wait anywhere between one and three hours for him. Because nothing could ever be easy for us.

The Director finally arrived a little over 2 hours later, and he did _not_ look pleased to see us. "What are you doing back so early?" he asked, with a hint of annoyance.

"It was all a trap, a setup. They ambushed us and they… they killed Fang," I spat out, my voice wavering at the end.

His face softened a little. "I'm sorry for your loss. But what are you doing back here?"

He didn't get it. "Don't you understand? There is no attack. It was all a fake to get us killed. Someone knew about it."

He shook his head. "That's impossible. You, the pilot, and I were the only ones that knew about it. And the pilot didn't know where the flight was to until the day before. Besides," he continued, "Las Angeles _was _attacked. It's burning right now." He pulled out a remote and pressed a button. A news report appeared on the monitor. There was a live feed of LA burning, smoke billowing from the skyline. Then a blurry picture of _us _popped onto the screen. Next to it, a picture of us flying around the Empire State building appeared. _Not good,_ I thought grimly. The news lady went on to point out that we had been in the cities during both attacks and had the nerve to _blame them on us._

The One Light was sitting in his office room – more like floor – watching the ambush on the Flock on a monitor. He was getting such valuable information. Everything was going perfectly. The Flock was getting worn out – they'd be done for soon. He permitted himself to smile. The helicopter came flying in. Exactly as according to plan. Then one of the Gen. 77 mutants picked up a gun, and severed the lines with the bullets. No! The One Light almost screamed. This was bad, very bad…

Then he saw Beth parachute out of the helicopter. _What the hell does she think she's doing? _He thought furiously. He saw her grow in the screen, and then a fist connecting with her face. She was on the ground, and pulled out a gun. _No, no, NO! _A shot rang out and the screen went blank. A second gunshot rang out, and everything was silent.

The One Light shook his head. He'd lost both his informant and his second in command in one day.

_I added that last part for you guys. Trust me, you guys will be glad I killed off Fang before this story is over. I swear._

_**I'm going to bed now. I start school tomorrow, and I really don't want to be exhausted.**_


	20. Chapter 19

Sorry for the long wait guys. I've been really, really busy. My weekday consists of school until 2, cross county every day until 5, and then homework until 8. Every weekend, I have cross country, baseball, and homework, leaving me with absolutely no time to write. I barely had the time to finish this.

Fang: Excuses, excuses.

Me: Well, yeah, kinda. I'm gonna update really infrequently. Plus, next month I'm taking part in, you guessed, NaNoWriMo. I'll be kind of hard pressed for updates, so expect one more until then, and then nothing until December. Once again, I'm really sorry, guys.

Shout-out to: Sierra156

The Director shook his head at the news report and turned the monitor off. "Things will be much harder for you from here on out," he warned me. "You're a wanted criminal now."

_No shit, Sherlock, _I thought. Everything was going _way _downhill. And fast. First we lost Fang, and now we're wanted criminals. Our numbers were starting to diminish. Angel, now Fang…

"Wait. How's Angel?" I asked. Somehow, between Fang and _this_, I had completely forgotten about her.

The Director's face was grim. My heart had fallen out of my chest. _Something must have gone terribly wrong, _I told myself, fearing for the worst.

"We… don't know. It seemed like the procedure was successful, but her mind is still completely blocked off. There's only one way to tell really…" his voice trailed off. I raised my eyebrows. The Director refused to look at me. "We can put you alone in a room with her. See how she reacts. Right now, if she's still under DG control, she won't be able to keep up her act."

I didn't get it. "That _sounds _simple enough. What's the big deal?"

The Director shook his head, and gave me a solemn look. "You don't understand. While you're in there we can't guarantee your safety. It's possible we won't get in there in time if she attacks you. You could _die." _

I disregarded the warning immediately. "It doesn't matter." _Nothing really matters at this point. We've already lost so much._

The Director shook his head again, clearly frustrated with my response. "This way," he mumbled. I followed him alone.

We arrived at another one of those invisible doors in another blank hallway. This place was _bland._

I walked in the room, almost nervous of what I would find.

Angel was sitting in the far corner of the room, hugging her legs. It looked like she'd been crying.

I noticed that I was the only one in the room when the door closed behind me. "Angel?" I called out.

She looked up, her face miserable. "Max?" When she saw me, she jumped up and ran towards me. "Max!"

_This is it, _I thought. Time to see if we truly had Angel back. If this didn't work I don't know what I would do.

Upon arriving at me, Angel jumped and tightly wrapped her arms around me. Thankfully, not my throat.

"Where are we, Max? Are we still in Paris? Where's everyone else?" she asked me frantically, sounding a bit like Nudge.

"You're okay now, sweetie. We're safe, everyone's safe," I said as she finally let go. "C'mon, this way." I pointed where the door was, the one we couldn't see. Angel grabbed my hand, like she used to last year before our lives had been thrown inside out. The door opened, and the Director looked weirdly relieved to see me unharmed.

We arrived back in the Director's "office," where everyone in the Flock was waiting anxiously. They saw me walking in holding Angel's hand, and their faces lit up. None of us could stop smiling. Even everyone in Fang's Gang was grinning. The Director walked in a bit behind us, forcing a weak smile. "Enjoy your family reunion while you can. We just confirmed the Doomsday Group headquarters."

My face hardened and my fists clenched. "Where is it?"

"In Germany. The old Itex headquarters."

I'm sorry. That was really obvious, but I had to do it.

_**Anyways, next chapter, I'm going to make up for killing Fang off.**_

_**Fang: I still have no idea how you plan on doing that.**_

_**Me: Trust me, I can and will. Next chapter. Until then.**_

_**~MaximumX and Fang**_


	21. Chapter 20

I want to apologize now for the extreme OOCness that will occur later in this chapter. I just want to point out that it's intentional.

_**Fang: You're a terrible author.**_

_**Me: *shrugs* Eh, most authors do it. Even JP did it throughout all of FANG and ANGEL.**_

_**Fang: True.**_

_**Me: You all owe this chapter to Sierra156, who said, and I quote, "update soon, before I murder you!" Let's just say death threats are very effective.**_

_**Now, onto the chapter in which I start to make up for Fang's untimely death!**_

_**Fang: Still impossible.**_

_**Me: Shut up.**_

I should have known. Of _course _they would use the old Itex headquarters. How much more unoriginal could they get?

I honestly wondered why we didn't completely abolish the place when we had the chance. I really did _not _want to go back there. But if that's where the DG was, then that's where we were going. We _would _get our revenge.

The new Itex offered us a helicopter ride, which I really wanted to refuse. Our last ride went, well, _very _badly. It ended with Fang dying. Nonetheless, I accepted, having a feeling I would regret it later.

The helicopter was so freaking _small. _There was barely any breathing room in the thing. I was going crazy. Claustrophobia at its finest.

We finally got to Germany 7 hours later. 7 _hours._ I was ready to rip someone's head off.

We landed in some field, about 30 miles away from the castle. As in, the helicopter landed, as opposed to it, I don't know, _being blown to bits. _

We were going to fly everyone – except Star, who could run it – over to the building the old fashioned way, by mutant bird kid.

Let's just say that flying over 30 miles with a 150-pound Ratchet was _not _my idea of fun. By the time I got there, even flying at my max speed, my arms were aching, and Ratchet looked sick.

I looked at the massive structure ahead of me. They had definitively done some repair work recently.

Star emerged a minute later, sweat just starting to drip down her face. Everyone else was still at least 15 minutes away. Thank you, super speed.

When everyone else finally arrived, we planned on how we would get in. We couldn't exactly just walk and ring the doorbell. We finally decided that we would go under the 10-foot barbed-wire construction fence. We were careful not to touch it, just in case it was electrified. We found a big enough hole, which made me think someone or some_thing _had tried this before.

I went in first to make sure it was safe. When I gave the all clear, I was followed by Angel, Gazzy, Nudge, Holden, Iggy, Kate, Star, and Ratchet. If he were still around, Fang would have come in last.

Unlike the last time we were here, there was no one outside – no guards patrolling, or experiments being marched before death. The place really seemed abandoned.

There was a person-sized hole in the wall, which bothered me. It seemed like someone had made a pathway in for us, leading us to a trap.

The first room on the first floor held nothing but empty crates upon empty crates. The antiseptic was really strong, and made us all want to get the hell out of there – it brought back such bad memories. But we pushed on anyways.

The place had five floors, so we decided to split up. Ratchet and Star were taking the top floor. Holden and Nudge were taking the fourth. Iggy and Gazzy were going to the third. Kate and Angel would take the second. Maya and I were taking the rest of the first floor and the basement. After we were done, we were meeting back here. Not sure I was exactly happy with the arrangement, but we were the last two. So, like it or not, we were partners.

The first floor was empty. There were more empty cages, and a meeting room with nothing left but a blank white board, tables, and chairs. It was all new. This had definitely been the Doomsday Group headquarters at one time, but not anymore.

The basement was completely dark. It took my eyes a few minutes to adjust, and when I did, I still struggled to see, despite having perfect night vision. It was _that _dark.

Suddenly, a beam of light shined in front of me. I whirled around, expecting to come face to face with an Eraser or guard of some sort, but instead found Maya nonchalantly shining a flashlight at me I didn't even know she had. I gave her a look, and she just shrugged it off.

She shined the light back and forth, the light landing on walls with shackles, and empty, dusty floor, a steel door in the corner – wait, a door?

We ran over to it, hoping to find something useful to bring back to the Flock. Since Maya had the flashlight, I opened the door. We counted down from 3, and I threw open the steel door. I admit, I was honestly surprised by what was in there.

The room seemed nearly identical to the first one – overcrowded with barely any space to walk around. There were easily as many crates. The main difference here was that most the cages were _inhabited_. Dead and dying mutants were slumped on the floors of their undersized cages. The smell of death was completely overpowering.

There was a slight shuffling and a small sigh from the back. Maya and I nodded simultaneously. Freaky, but I guess that happens with clones.

We walked to the back slowly, careful not to miss anyone. God, I couldn't it. There were dead ape mutants, spider mutants, snake mutants, shark mutants, octopus mutants, and some I couldn't even identify. As I continued walking along, I heard moaning from my right. I walked over to it and took a knee. I was staring right into Ella's cage. She was alive – for now – but there was no way she would make it much longer. I undid the lock _way_ too easily. Again, as if someone _wanted _me to. As I pulled her out of her crate and slung her arm around my shoulder, I noticed a reddish feather sticking out her back. _Oh Ella, _I thought. _What have you gotten yourself in to? _

I walked through the narrow aisle, and stopped at the last crate in the room, as did Maya. A familiar dark figure sat hunched over in his cage, fists clenched, ready to fight.

"Fang?" Maya and I said at the _same exact time. _

He looked up instantly. "Max," he said, relief flooding over his face. His eyes flickered to the side and saw Maya. "Max?" he said again. He shook his head. "Oh man, I'm losing it."

Maya looked genuinely hurt. Fang had no idea who she was. Which meant…

"Fang, what are you doing here? How _long _have you been here?"

"I honestly have no idea," he replied, sounding a little high. "I've been here for weeks. I think. I've been here since Total's wedding." He paused. "But I knew you would come."

I looked up from the lock I was fiddling with. "How?"

"Because we said we would be with each other forever. And besides, Max," he said, a wide, boyish grin breaking across his face. Grinning is _not _something Fang does.

"I love you, Max."

Fang: I do NOT talk like that.

Me: I know. I warned you of OOCness. And I just want to say I considered ending the chapter:

"I love you, Max. I love you _this _much."

_Oh Jeez._

A parody of STWAOES, but I decided against it. So, how do you like my return of Fang? You may be a little confused. If you are, reread the first few chapters. It will make more sense. The next chapter or 2, I will try to better explain it. Though that may not be until December. Blame NaNoWriMo. -MaximumX and Fang 


	22. Chapter 21

Does anyone else have a problem with FF not bolding, italicizing, or underlining their A/Ns? I did all three and not one of them worked last chapter for the end of the chapter.

_**Anyways. I'm sorry I haven't updated in forever. I've been prepping for NaNoWriMo and haven't had any time. But I felt guilted into writing this chapter because-**_

_**Fang: You won't be updating again until sometime in December.**_

_**Me: Yeah…unless I win early. And this chapter is kinda suckish. I apologize for this.**_

_**Anyways, shout-outs to: galeprimrue and Sierra156.**_

Fang walked back with us, still acting strange. He offered to carry Ella (which I declined), but was acting _very _unusual. He had this weird smile plastered on his face, and when he talked, his voice sounded different. As we neared the stairs, he started rambling. "This is a test, isn't it? All of this is a test. Yep, it's definitively a test." I looked at him sadly. _What have they done to you, Fang?_

When we met up with everyone on the middle floor, Fang eyed his gang with distrust. He turned around and whispered. "Max – either one of you – would you mind telling me who these people are? Are they part of the test?"

I sighed. "I'll explain later," I whispered back. "Wait. Can you still go invisible?" He nodded. "Good. Do it."

I turned to the rest of the Flock. "Guy's let's head outside, and we'll go over what we found." I received no rejections, and we headed outside, Fang still invisible. The moment we stepped out of the building, I felt Fang's presence beside me.

"This…this isn't a test, is it?" He whispered. I shook my head. He didn't respond again. Finally, I had my Fang back.

We positioned ourselves on the ground. "Report. What did you guys find?"

Not surprisingly, Nudge spoke up first. "Oh my god, Max, we found all these tables and offices and desks, but all the drawers were empty, there was _nothing _in them, it was like totally creepy, and I felt the people sitting there that there were important subjects or something here, I wonder what they were, but we didn't find anything else." Yes, that was _one _sentence.

"Ditto," Star said once she was sure Nudge was done.

"Just empty board rooms," Kate commented.

"There was _nothing _on our floor at all," Gazzy complained, disappointed not to find anything. "Everything was cleared out."

Maya started speaking for us. "We found a lot of cages, mostly full of dead experiments."

I picked up from where she left off. "But, we found Ella-" I pointed to the body I had laid down beside me (which incited Iggy to sigh), "-and Fang." The moment I said his name, he stepped forward. The Flock gasped. Before anyone had the time to say anything, the building behind me exploded.

(A/N):

Me: God F******g D***it! No F******g power! A F******g snowstorm in F******g OCTOBER?

_**Fang: …I apologize for…him.**_

_**Me: I need power! No power means no Fanfiction, no Internet, no TV, no… NO SCHOOL! I may actually have a chance at NaNoWriMo now. Well, later guys. I'll post this sometime in November I guess.**_

_**Fang: And then not again until December.**_

_**Me: *shrugs***_

_**-MaximumX and Fang**_


	23. Chapter 22

_**(A/N): Hey guys! Been a while…NaNoWriMo…Yeah, about that…**_

_**Fang: He lost. Badly.**_

_**Me: Hey! That's – entirely true.**_

_**The first day, I didn't have power or word count, so I fell 600 words behind. At the end of week one, I was still 600 words behind. On week two, I wrote 3000 words the first two days, and in the next 3 weeks, wrote less than 2000 words. So.**_

_**Honestly, I hope I still have some readers after November. To those of you that are still around, I'm giving you a gift: one of my longer chapters. Enjoy!**_

What is with the DG and bombs? They're worse than Iggy and Gazzy!

"Report," I croaked. God, this was getting annoying. I would never get used to the feeling of being blown up.

Everyone called in except Ella, who was still unconscious. At least, I hoped that's why her body was limp. Just to be safe, I discreetly checked her pulse. I regretted it immediately.

There was the faintest, slowest pulse I had ever felt on a living person. Then it jumped up to about what it should be for a normal person. However, Ella was no longer entirely human - her wings. Her pulse was still too low.

Then it plummeted again.

She didn't have much time. "Guys, we've gotta get Ella out of here."

Iggy stiffened. "Why? What happened? Max! What the hell happened?"

I was afraid to answer. We needed a way out of here, and fast. Then I remembered - the helicopter.

I stood up and grabbed Ella. "Guys, the helicopter should still be over there. Move out, quickly!"

Everyone moved out quickly, heading back. I watched to make sure everyone had left when I went to start flying, until I saw Fang still standing there. "Helicopter?"

I sighed. "Long story. C'mon, this way," I told him. The moment the words left my lips, I was airborne. Fang followed, and we began our fly back. This time, I didn't use my super speed. Instead, I stayed even with Fang.

An awkward silence filled the air. "So..." he trailed off. "Care to tell me where we're going?"

I bit my lip. He wasn't going to like my answer. Honestly, I didn't like it either. "Nope."

He turned to face me, and I looked away. "Max..."

Still avoiding his eyes, I mumbled, "Itex," so quietly, there's no way he heard it. I felt his eyes glaring into the back of my head. He shook his head and looked forward. I nearly sighed. I've been doing that a lot lately, haven't I?

It was somewhat disappointing to find out we were the last ones to the helicopter. Everyone else had been sitting around, waiting for us. Slightly embarrassed, I didn't say anything, and led everyone onboard. The moment we took off, Fang asked me again. "Where are we going?"

I took a deep breath, ready for him to be pissed off at me. "Itex."

Fang jumped to his feet. "Itex! What the hell is this?" The last time I'd seen him this livid was when I picked Ari over him. He lowered his voice. "You better be able to explain, Max."

I shrugged, trying to keep cool, trying to make sure he didn't catch how unnerved I was. "It's kinda a long story."

He swept his hand across in front of him, motioning to the fact we were in a helicopter. "We have time."

After I explained the situation to Fang, he was a little less upset, but still pissed off about us being with Itex. Actually, I finished telling him everything just before we landed.

No sooner, Ella was dragged out of the helicopter, put on and gurney, and rolled away we were ushered back inside, reporting back to Director Dylan. Fang's expression faltered for half a second when he first saw the original, but he went back to being Mr. Rock before anyone else saw it. I'll admit, the first moment is always a shock, no matter how many clones you've seen.

When the Director saw Fang, he was quick to question. "What's he doing here? I thought you said he died." I was annoyed that he sounded disappointed Fang was alive.  
I chose to respond. "So did we. He claims he's been being experimented on for weeks."  
"Claims?" I heard him mutter. I ignored him.

The Director looked disappointed and near disgust. "It was a clone. They killed a clone. "

I had known it already, but the confirmation made me weak. "Are you sure?"  
He nodded, calmer now. "Yes. Yes, I'm sure. It would explain a lot. How they knew about your plans to stop the public execution, when you were ambushed. He was a snitch."

He was right, but- "Then why did they kill him?"

He shrugged. "Not sure." He looked at Fang. "If you want, we can make sure-"  
Fang gave him a death glare, and I cut him off. "No."

The Director didn't care. "Alright. I'll have you shown your rooms."  
With that, guards led us down a white hallway. Apparently, each of us was getting our own room. Dylan got the first one. Maya got the next one, then Fang, followed by Iggy, Nudge, Holden, Ratchet, Star, Gazzy, Angel, and finally me. The moment the (hidden) door to my room opened, I walked in and plopped down onto the bed Itex so generously provided us with. Note the sarcasm.

I stared at the blank white ceiling. Heck, everything in the room was white.  
Things were so complicated now. If the Fang that left me, pissed me off, and broke my heart was a clone, how could I hold that against the real one? But, how could I ever put what happened behind me? Whenever I saw Fang, all those bad memories and feelings would resurface, even though the Fang I was with wasn't to blame.

But I couldn't be with Dylan, either. I'd always know that he was my second choice, second best. That I was only with him because I had been tricked, and badly. Ugh. Things were way too complicated now. Everything made so much more sense before the damn whitecoats had to ruin my life.

I let out a long scream, and finally closed my eyes. I needed some rest. Maybe things would make more sense tomorrow, with rest.

Yeah, right.

**(Dylan PoV):  
**

Dylan had to see Max. He just needed to be with her right now. He knew she would be upset and need comforting.

He also knew Max would begin to question their relationship.

That's why he needed to be there.

Luckily for Dylan, he had once lived in a place nearly identical to the Itex headquarters. He knew exactly how all the doors worked, and how to get around.

Scratch that. He had just gone out into the hall, and it was a labyrinth. Everything was white, with indents and outlets every few feet. He could only hope Max was in the room across from him, or he would never find her.

He knocked on the space of the wall where the door would be. Hopefully, the room wouldn't be soundproofed.

He heard Max's confused voice, and opened the door at the confirmation.  
When the door was ajar, he realized his mistake. It wasn't Max's room. But it was too late to turn back now. She was staring right into his eyes. _Maya._

He started stuttering. "I-uh, I was, um-" What was he doing? He was never like this! Never! Not even around Max.

Maya turned away. She didn't care. "He never really loved me. He was a clone. Just a stupid clone, and I thought he actually loved me," she said, to no one in particular. "I fell for it." Her voice wavered, and Dylan thought he saw tears welling in her eyes. "I was stupid, so stupid, to even think that." Tears started rolling down her eyes.

Dylan walked over and sat down next to her. He put his arm around her, in an attempt to comfort her. She turned to him, grateful. "Look,I'm sorry. I shouldn't have dumped that on you."

Dylan gave her a charming smile and said softly, "Relax, it's no big deal." Maya looked up at him, smiling happily. She rested her head on his shoulder. They sat like that for what felt like hours, until a guard noticed Dylan and escorted him back to his room.

But he kept asking himself one thing over and over in his mind: _Why didn't you kiss her when you had the chance?  
_

_**(A/N): So, how'd you guys like it? I'm gonna try and update quite a bit this December. I really want to finish this before spring, but if I don't, oh well. You guys know what to do. Click that little review button down there.**_

_**One last thing: I'm gonna start having "poll" like questions at the end of chapters.**_

_**Is it bad to sign out and anonymously review your own story a bunch of times?If it's a bad story with no reviews? A really good story trying to reach a milestone?**_

**_What pairings do you want to see in _Nevermore_?_**

_**PS: My birthday is coming up, so review for my birthday! PLEASE? For my birthday present?**_

_**Fang: He really wants you to review.**_

_**Me: Yup!**_

_**-MaximumX and Fang**_


	24. Chapter 23

_**Hey guys, guess what? IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!**_

_**Fang: No it isn't.**_

_**Me: Well, it was yesterday, when I was going to originally post this, but I ran out of time for the A/N.**_

_**And I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, but I have a list of excuses: My grandfather has been in the hospital for hallucinations and brain deterioration, I go stitches two weeks ago and only recently got them out, I just had my birthday, and Christmas preparation. I've been busy.**_

_**I apologize for the short chapter. I'll update more than once over Christmas break.**_

_**Shout-outs to: galeprimrue, Sparta/flash5335, and Sierra 156 (for this chapter and last).**_

The next day was awkward, for all of us. Fang and I kept discreetly glancing at each other. Occasionally, I would glance at Dylan, only to find him and Maya looking at each other. Meanwhile, Ella kept sneaking glances at each Iggy, and Nudge and Holden wouldn't stop staring at each other. Then there was Ratchet and Star. Overall, it felt like we were caught in a giant love web.  
We were standing in a group, waiting for the Director. Out of the corner of my mind, I realized we were losing the little freedom had left.  
And, I was losing my position as leader to a _whitecoat_.  
Life sucks.  
While we waited for him I mulled over my increasingly complicated love life. The whitecoats had to ruin everything for me, even that.  
A freaking hour later, he finally arrived, an annoying smirk on his face.  
"Good morning, Max. I have good news. Our Intel shows-"  
"I don't give a shit!" I whirled around to a furious Fang. I was shocked. He rarely lost his temper like this.  
"We're perfectly fine on our own. We don't need you around!" He turned to me. "Why the hell are we even here? Why are we -you- taking orders from _him_?" He spat out the last word. He turned back to the Director. "I want out."  
The Director was caught off guard. "Excuse me?"  
Fang repeated himself very slowly. "I. Want. Out."  
The Director's eyes narrowed. He stared at me. "Do you agree with what he said?"  
I was taken aback. "Oh, umm..."  
I looked around at everyone else. They all nodded. "Yes. I do."  
"Very well. Guards!" He began grinning. "Hello, Max. Welcome to the headquarters of the Doomsday Group." He began laughing, and men around the room turned into Erasers and various other mutants. They ran over to us, and in our shock, they managed to pick us up and drag us into dog crates.  
The Director was clearly trying to make this harder on us. The Flock's cages were arranged exactly as they were while we were in the school. Fang and Angel on either side of me, and Nudge, Iggy, and Gazzy on top. Across from us was everyone else, also caged.  
All because I'd let them down. Maybe Angel hade been right.  
Maybe I wasn't fit to be leader.

_**Well, it was short but important. I really just wanted to post something.**_

_**And I was considering lengthening this chapter and making it the last one, but I decided against it. Nonetheless, we are approaching the end. Probably just a few more chapters to go. Can I hit 50 reviews before then? 11 to go!**_

_**Review? For my birthday?**_

_**-MaximumX and Fang**_


	25. Chapter 24

_**Shout-out to: Sierra156**_

I failed. I was responsible for the Flock, to keep them safe, and under my watch, we were captured and put in a hellhole even worse than the School.  
Worse, I'd gotten Fang's Gang and Ella caught in this mess too.

I cringed as yet another needle was jabbed into my arm. I was strapped down on a gurney, completely exhausted. I was clueless as to what kind of experiments were being done on me. Earlier, they had me run for 48 hours straight. Before that, they made me go days without any food or water.

The Director walked in, that annoying smirk still on his face. "Hello, Max."

"Asshole."

"Now, now, Max," he said in mock shock, "Is that any way to be talking to the most powerful man on the planet?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. Haven't met him."

His icy glare bore into my eyes. "You think you're so smart and clever." He stopped glaring at me, and became excited. "I want to show you something. Look!"  
He pressed a button, and a monitor swung down as my gurney adjusted into an upright position.

"Behold!" he roared. "Seattle! Live."

The scene was gruesome. Skyscrapers were on fire and collapsing. People were running through the streets and screaming, being killed by falling debris and DG mutants. The US Military was there, but they were accomplishing nothing. Bullets were literally bouncing off mutants, and soldiers were being slaughtered. The Director finally turned it off.

He knelt down to be eye level with me and whispered, "Did you see that? That was because you failed. You failed to save the world. You even failed to save your Flock and even yourself." He stood up. "Bring her back to her cage." Two Erasers grinned as they grabbed my arms and started dragging my limp body back to the others. I didn't even struggle.

What the hell _happened_ to me?

There was no true distinction between night and day. We were locked in windowless rooms, experiments nonstop. Only half of us were in the same room at once.  
Fang and I were never together.

It was _torture_, living like this. I'm sure it was only a few days, but it felt like weeks. I wanted to try to plot to escape, but if I did, the Director would know. After all, he _is_ the Voice.

Two days later, the Director walked in with everyone else into the holding room. They were all thrown in cages. Simply to annoy me, Fang was the farthest away.  
I noticed a figure standing behind him. The Director noticed. He smirked at me. "Oh, you want to know who that is? Everyone, meet your executioner." The figure stepped forward.  
It was Jeb.  
The Director laughed at our faces. "You're _execution_ will be tomorrow, just after a few more tests." He continued to cackle. He and Jeb left.  
_Jeb._

I woke up strapped to a wall. I could barely turn my head, but I could just make out the rest of the Flock.

We were going to _die_.

_Trust me_, I heard the Voice beg me. _This is going to work out fine._

_Why should I trust you, Director? __**You**__ want __**me**__ dead._ I spat back.

_Who said I'm the Director?_ I didn't answer. He was trying to mess with me. I wasn't about to die a pawn, being tricked and lied to up until the end.

The room was empty. It was very similar to the holding cell – all white, an unseen door. The main difference was this room had a window for observers.

Finally, the Director walked in with Jeb and one guard. The guard was armed and the Director was holding an unloaded pistol. Not that it mattered – this time, there was no way to escape. We'd cheated death enough already.

The Director filled the magazine of the pistol at a painstakingly slow pace. He pushed the bullets in one at a time, letting each click resonate in the air as we waited our impending doom.

There were 13 bullets in the mag - the perfect amount. No errors were expected, or tolerated.

The gun was handed to Jeb, the Director giving him only one instruction: "Leave Max for last" That son of a bitch Director wanted me to watch – listen – to my family's deaths.

_Angel_, I thought. _Can you stop him?_

I got my response immediately. _No. Sorry, Max. I already tried_. With that, Jeb took aim at Angel. He stared down the sights and aimed for her head. His finger began to tighten around the trigger, and –

He whirled around, and shot the gun five times into the Director's chest. He was dead before he hit the ground.

In turn, the guard shot at Jeb, hitting him twice in the gut before Jeb managed to return one to his head. But Jeb was on the ground, bleeding out. Dying – for us, for _me_. He'd always said he'd take a bullet for me, and now he had. Twice.

I hadn't tried before - I'd already given up - but I struggled against my restraints. My adrenaline was higher than ever. Like that, the thick leather restraints snapped and I was standing on the ground. I took one step and kneeled down next to him while the rest of the Flock struggled to escape. Jeb looked up at me, his eyes starting to look glassy, and his face paling. He gave me a pained smile. "Max." My eyes began to water. I grabbed his hand. "I told you to trust me." His hand had been shaking, but now it was completely still. His expression was frozen on his face, and his body slumped. "J-Jeb? W-what? No! No, Jeb, goddammit!" My hands were on his chest, and I was slamming it, desperately trying to get his heart to start up again, to get his lungs breathing. It was no use, but I refused to stop.

Every single memory I ever had about Jeb came rushing back: When he started watching us more than any other Whitecoat at the School. When he got us out. When he watched after us at the E-house. When I would wish and pretend Jeb was actually my dad. When he disappeared and we all knew he was dead. When we found out he betrayed us and was with the School. When I ignored him, mocked him, ridiculed him. When I found out he actually was my dad, and I didn't care. When I told him I didn't trust him at all, and how hurt and upset he was. When he took that first bullet for me. And now.

But the day that changed me more than any other was the day he told me I had to save the world. It really changed me. I couldn't just bead anymore. I couldn't just look out for my Flock. I had to look out for the world.

Below me, Jeb was still unresponsive. I heard Fang's voice warn me and tell me to stop, but I didn't listen. I was completely sobbing now, and reason meant nothing.

I felt my own heartbeat slowing, my breaths shortening, my vision blurring. Everything was going much slower.

The very last thing I remember before blacking out was hearing everyone's concerned voice, even –

Jeb?

_**So, as you may have noticed, I saved the Author's Note for down here. Why, you ask? Because you got to read the chapter 20 seconds sooner, on top of the month and a half wait. You're welcome.**_

_**But as for the wait, I'm really sorry. I had no idea where I was going with this…came up with something on the bus in the morning two days ago…nothing like 6:30 for plot ideas.**_

_**But, as of right now, I think there will be three more updates for this: One more chapter, an epilogue, and a thanks/stats/goodbye chapter. So, this is finally coming to a close.**_

_**Oh, and did you guys hear? In just a few weeks, the official Nevermore cover will be released with an excerpt!**_

_**See you guys in a few weeks!**_

_**Fang: Hopefully.**_

_**Me: I was wondering when you would show up.**_

_**Later everyone.**_

_**-MaximumX and Fang**_


	26. Check In  AN

(A/N) Hey guys. I know, you expected this to be a chapter.

Since my last update, a lot has happened in the Maximum Ride world, and I mean a LOT. The cover of Nevermore was released, Angel deluxe edition, leaks of the excerpt, and, my favorite, Patterson announcing a fan fiction contest to write the final chapter of Nevermore! The details are on max-dan-wiz.

So, as far as this story goes, I've been lacking inspiration for the last chapter. But, I finally got some ideas today, and I'm up to 600 words. I'm expecting to update by the end of next week – I'm hoping to reach close to 2000 words, and school disagrees with that plan. Plus, I work for several hours every Saturday, so that doesn't help either.

Well, a chapter and an epilogue to go!

See you soon, guys.

-MaximumX (and no Fang)


	27. Chapter 25

_**(A/N): Well, it's finally here. The last chapter of the story! I will try to write the epilogue over the weekend, but no promises.**_

_**And to Eat. Sleep. Write. Read, no Fang doesn't sleep in a closet anymore. He sleeps in the dungeon **_

_**Fang: You don't even have a dungeon.**_

_**Me: Fine, I don't. Spoilsport. No, Fang sleeps on a cot in my room. So no need for you to kidnap him from his kidnapper.**_

_**Shout outs to: Sierra156, AnikaandAj, and Eat. Sleep. Write. Read**_

_**See you at the bottom!**_

When I came to, I was on a hospital bed. I felt like I had the crap kicked out of me. Which, according to my memory, never happened.  
Everyone had been around my bed, but they were all sleeping on chairs.

Except Fang.

Everyone else's chair was a few feet away, but Fang's was pushing into the bed. He was leaning over me, gently stroking my hair. Anyone else would think he was calm, but I could see the worry in his face. "I love you, Max," he whispered.

I'm not sure if he realized I was conscious. "I love you too."

If he was surprised he didn't show it. He stared at me gratefully, a smile slowly creeping up his face. We sat there like that for at least a few minutes.

Finally, I asked him, "How long was I out?"

He didn't look at me. "Almost a day." He didn't have to say anything - he'd been worried about me. I wouldn't be surprised if he stayed by side without sleeping at all.  
He lowered himself carefully into the hospital bed. I tried to turn to face him, when I felt the IV cord pull. I hadn't even noticed it.

I turned back and loosened the cord from the rail that it was caught on.

I held up the slack. "When are they gonna take this out?" I questioned him.

He shrugged. "Probably sometime today." With that, he gave me a short gentle kiss on my forehead, reminding me of all of the good times we'd had, back before Dylan, and the Doomsday Group, and before Angel predicted his death. Our eyes locked on to each others. I couldn't help but feel like a schoolgirl as my heart fluttered. I hadn't felt like this since Fang and I first became a "couple."

"Ahem." We both jumped, and Fang stood up. We found Iggy glaring at us - that is, his eyes were narrowed and his face was turned towards our general direction. "I hope I'm not interrupting, or anything, but you two aren't the only ones here." He stood up. "Were you really gonna leave us waiting, Maxy?"

I heard groans next to him. "Iggy, shut up," Nudge said groggily. She cleared her eyes and saw us. "MAX!" she squealed as she ran over. Of course, that woke up everyone else. Before long, the entire Flock was converging on me. Behind them, I noticed-

No. It couldn't be. No way. I saw him die.

It was Jeb.

He was standing back, smiling, letting us have our moment. When I noticed him, he walked forward. "Hello, Max. How are you feeling?"

I was still shocked. "Fine, but - how?"

His smirk grew. "You," he said, pointing at me.

I glared at him. "That didn't explain anything."

He chuckled. "It goes a long way back. As soon as the doctor clears you to leave, I'll tell you all the whole thing. I promise."

I wasn't sure I believed him, but what choice did I really have?

The doctors (reluctantly) released me 2 hours later. No sooner were the words out if the head doctor's mouth when I jumped up and rushed into the hall. The last thing I noticed was a look of exasperation.

When I stepped outside, my first instinct was to unfurl my wings and take off.

But I resisted.

No, it was time to have that little talk with Jeb.

Jeb brought us to my mom's old house. When we were all situated on the couches and chairs in the living room, he began. His words were directed at me, and his gaze only confirmed it.

"Years before you were born, Itex worked on other human-avian hybrids. Our genetic coding was flawed - few made it past infancy, and those that did were deformed. We learned very little at the time, but through these experiments, we began to perfect your "powers" - Angel's mind reading, for example.

"We stopped the human-avian hybrid project, and began working on the Erasers. Once we completed them, we went back to you. At the time, most of the scientists wanted to see how many "powers" could successfully be given to an experiment. At the time, we believed it was three.

"So we started off with that. We gave you what we'd already done: superspeed, the ability to breathe underwater, and self healing."

I objected. "But I don't-"  
"The self healing, for some reason, didn't work. It was the only one we actually expected to. We found out later what the problems were. That's how Dr. Gunther-Hagen developed the self healing abilities Dylan has.

"I still don't know why, but none of your abilities were present at birth. The same goes for everyone else's abilities.

"Also, your abilities began to mutate in a way we hadn't predicted. Fr example, Nudge's ability to attract metal, or your ability to heal others, Max."

I gave him a strange look. "What are you talking about? I can't heal other people."

Jeb chuckled. "How do you think I'm still alive?" He had a point.

"As far as Dylan Janssen goes, he was the old Director's son. He blamed you for her arrest, and he wanted to continue her work. So, he began by hiring Dr. Hans to create a clone of him. However, he wanted the clone to be matured 15 years. It was believed to be impossible, but Hans succeeded. He was ordered to hide the fact that the original was still alive.

"Dylan, or the new Director, created two fronts for his work - Itex, and the Doomsday Group. They were the same thing, but Itex posed as legal.

"He began using mind control to recruit others. He concentrated on the young, as they were easier to manipulate. However, there were a few adults that he manipulated, such as your mother, Max.

"As soon as I heard about the Doomsday Group, I feigned being brainwashed. I suspected it had something to do with Itex.

"I spent time gaining the Director's trust. I did so quickly, and, by the time he had captures you, I'd completely gained his trust. He believed I was brainwashed, and left me in charge of executing you. That's when I killed him."

"So the Voice is gone now, right?" I asked for confirmation.

Jeb struggled with the question. "Yes and no. You probably won't hear from it anymore, but it's not gone."

"But the Director was the Voice."

Jeb smiled. "He was the one that first proposed the Voice. He put a lot of work towards developing the technology, right next to me. For a time, I had sole control over the technology, but Director Marian Janssen and Roland ter Borcht had access to it, and later, Dr. Hans and the Director did too. When I told you I wasn't the Voice, I wasn't completely lying - I was only part of it."

Well then. That explained just about everything.

But I still had one more question. "What happened to my mom?"

Jeb's face fell. "I have no idea whatsoever. She wasn't supposed to be brainwashed. I don't even know if she's still alive." I felt like I'd been punched in the gut. I looked over at Ella, and she was fighting tears.

Jeb looked at her. "I'm sorry."

That night, I went for a long fly over the woods to clear my head. The past week or so had been crazy.

After about half an hour, I found a clearing that cut off into a cliff.

It was identical to the one in my nightmares from right before Angel was first brought back to the school.

I landed, and walked over to the edge of the cliff. I sat down, and began dangling my feet. The sun looked like it was just starting to rise - color was just peeking over the horizon.

I didn't even hear him come up from behind me. I only noticed him sit down next to me. Fang.

We sat there, looking straight ahead for what felt like eternity. At last, Mr. Silent put his arm around me and said, "We'll find her."

I smiled. "I know." I leaned over, resting my head on his shoulder.

The One Light was dead, but the Doomsday Group was not, by any means, defeated.

Most of the mutants had broken free of the DG mind control, but not everyone.

Still, I'd never been happier in my life.

And I planned on keeping it that way.

(A/N): Like it? I thought it was a good ending, but, I'm biased. I'm excited for the epilogue, cuz I have a great idea.

_**Oh, and as of right now, I have 43 reviews. I would LOVE to have after the epilogue (hint hint).**_

_**Later, guys!**_

_**-MaximumX and Fang**_


	28. Epilouge

_**(A/N): Nice short and sweet epilogue. At least I think so. Can't believe it's over…**_

_**Shout-out to: Eat. Sleep. Read. Write**_

3 weeks.  
3 weeks since we were supposed to be executed. 3 weeks since Jeb shot the Director.  
And today will be the happiest of all of them - hell, of my whole freaking life.  
We'd all set up camp at Dr. Martinez's place. And I mean all of us - the Flock and Fang's Gang.  
Almost everyone else was in the back yard. It was going to be a small ceremony - all of the "kids," Jeb, and John Abate. Jeb had called him and told him the bad news.  
I started to walk out. It was going to be a double ceremony, so I was going to be followed out. My long, white dress trailed behind me. Ahead, I saw the love of my life.  
Dylan.  
It took everything in me to not run up to him. After what felt like ages, I finally reached him. I really wanted to kiss him, but I held back the urge. "I love you, M," he whispered.  
God, I absolutely loved when he did that.  
"Love you too, Dyl," I whispered.  
We were standing very close, across from each other. Standing very close to my husband-to-be was Fang. He was legitimately smiling. Even I knew how rare that was. He was busy watching his bride as she neared closer to him. I have to admit, Max really looked beautiful in her wedding dress. 

_(Switch from Maya PoV to Max PoV)_

I could feel everyone else around me, I could see Maya and Dylan, but all I cared about was Fang.  
He was smiling, and I knew I had a goofy grin on my face. But I couldn't care less.  
Before I knew it, I was right next to him, looking up into his eyes. I didn't even hear the priest until we were taking our vows. I faintly heard myself say "I do." I think Maya and Dylan echoed Fang and I, but I wasn't really paying attention.  
Finally, I heard him instruct Fang, "You may kiss the bride."  
He happily obliged.  
The kiss was the best we'd ever had. It was heaven.  
Today was _definitely_ the best of my life.

_**(A/N):**_

…

…

…

_**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I can only imagine your faces right now.**_

_**Sorry, but I had to do that.**_

_**Just in case you didn't understand what just happened, Maya was getting married to Dylan in a joint ceremony with Max and Fang.**_

_**Anyways, In a week or so, I'll do a "Stats" page and give "awards" to the best reviews *wink wink***_

_**Well, I guess that's it. I have another story in the works, and after I do a few more chapters, I'll start uploading it.**_

_**See ya.**_

_**-MaximumX**_

_**(PS: Can we reach 50?)**_


	29. GoodbyeAwards

Hey guys. Just to avoid confusion, this entire thing is an Author's Note.

So as I said I would, this is that stats page. But before we start, I have one thing to say: THIS STORY IS ONE YEAR OLD! Okay, now that that's out of the way, lets begin.

Date Started: 3/24/11

Date Finished: 2/21/12

Total Words: 23,000 (Note: This number includes A/Ns. This chapter is not included in that total.)

Chapters: 27 (+ One A/N)

Hits: 5,500

Favorites: 8

Follows: 10

Total Reviews: 50

First Reviewer: hicharlotte

10th Review: flash5335

25th Review: Sierra156

50th Review: flash5335

Last Reviewer: flash5335

Most Reviews in a Row: Tie: Sierra156 and . (4 each)

Most Reviews by a Single Reviewer: 17 (Sierra156)

Funniest Review: Sierra156 (Chapter 21). The funniest part was the last paragraph. It read:

"Ha! I'll have to threaten you more often, each time in more graphic ways.  
But HOLY SHAT Ella. HOLY SHAT Fang. HOLY SHAT something is SERIOUSLY wrong with him. What the F*CK IS GOING ON HERE, HUH? WHAT THE FREAKING F*CK!  
Good thing you didn't do the SWATOES parody; WAY too many people do that. Congratulations on originality.  
By they way, you're doing a really great job on Max's personality! She's just like she is in the books.  
Threat Of The Chapter: Update before I come to your house with an axe IN BROAD DAYLIGHT (see, most people would do it at night, but a freaking axe doesn't scream 'stealthy') and chop you into McDonalds-chicken-nugget-sized bits. :D"

Nothing like death threats!

Most awards won: Sierra156 (4)

Runner up: flash5335 (3)

Well, it's been a great ride, guys. I'm working another story, an AU story. I finished the fifth chapter this morning, but they're all really short, so I plan on being close to finished before I start posting. Right now, it's named Diseased, but I don't love the title. It's about Fang getting terminal cancer. Yes, the cancer theme has been trending, but I came up with it back in November, back before it became popular. If anyone demands it, I'll prove it. Anyways, you can expect that up sometime during the summer, if not sooner.

And with that, Escaping the End is officially complete.

Fang: Finally.

Me: You just had to pop in, didn't you?

Fang: Yep.

-MaximumX and Fang


End file.
